Remarks on a recent paper on the "no free lunch" theorems

Author

Köppen, Mario ; Wolpert, David H. ; Macready, William G.

Author_Institution

Fraunhofer IPK, Berlin, Germany

Volume

5

Issue

3

fYear

2001

fDate

6/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

295

Lastpage

296

Abstract

This note discusses the recent paper "Some technical remarks on the proof of the no free lunch theorem" by Koppen (2000). In that paper, some technical issues related to the formal proof of the no free lunch (NFL) theorem for search were given by Wolpert and Macready (1995, 1997). The present authors explore the issues raised in that paper including the presentation of a simpler version of the NFL proof in accord with a suggestion made explicitly by Koppen (2000) and implicitly by Wolpert and Macready (1997). They also includes the correction of an incorrect claim made by Koppen (2000) of a limitation of the NFL theorem. Finally, some thoughts on future research directions for research into algorithm performance are given.

Keywords

genetic algorithms; knowledge representation; learning (artificial intelligence); learning systems; search problems; genetic algorithm; knowledge representation; learning systems; no free lunch theorems; search problem; Algorithm design and analysis; Cost function; Genetic algorithms; Knowledge representation; Learning systems; NASA; Stochastic processes;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1089-778X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4235.930318

Filename

930318