Genetic programming

John R. Koza's 'Genetic Programming' presents the theory and practice of evolving computer programs using principles inspired by biological evolution.

The book explains how populations of computer programs can be represented, mutated, and recombined to automatically discover programs that solve problems without being explicitly programmed.

Koza illustrates the approach with numerous example applications and experimental results, demonstrating surprising and creative solutions produced by evolutionary search.

He formalizes genetic programming operators, representations, and methodologies, positioning the field within both evolutionary computation and artificial intelligence.

The work is widely regarded as the seminal text that launched genetic programming as a research area.