Proposed C++ implementation of Natural Selection as per Richard Dawkins in 'The Blind Watchmaker'
In Richard Dawkins' famous book 'The Blind Watchmaker', he explains a simple yet powerful algorithmic way to illustrate evolution by natural selection. The goal is to start from a string of random characters, and mutate it until a goal sentence is reached.
In my proposed implementation, the algorithm works in the following way:
- Let N be the number of characters in our goal sentence/string G.
- A random string S of N characters consisting of uppercase Latin letters is generated.
- While S is not equal to G:
- Create X copies of S, but in each copy, at most four randomly selected letters are changed (mutation).
- Select the copy that has the most matching letters with G.
- Let S be the copy previously selected.
- Display S.
The program also counts the number of generations required for mutations to reach their goal.
I aim to improve this algorithm by prompting the user the phrase they want to reach.
Here is the resulting sequence for the string "THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING" at X = 1,000,000 on my machine:
1: O QN KDJQCILHGZFZIVJSYOSWQGFIXUSCJGNRBZMCYCMPUVQLKFXTGDHCVQWELX
2: O QN KDJUCILHGZFZCVJSYOSWQGFIXUSCJGNRBZMLYCMPUVQLKFXTGDHCVQWCLX
3: O AN KDJUCILHGZFZCHJSYOSWQGFIAUSCJGNRBZMLYCSPUVQLKFXTGDHCVQWCLX
4: O AN KYJUCILHGZFZCHGSYOSWQGFIAUSCJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQIKFXTGDHCVQWCLX
5: O AN KYJU VLHYZFZCHGSYOSWQGFIAUSCJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQIKHXTGDHCVQWCLX
6: O AN KYJU VLHYZMZCHGSYOSWQGFIAUSCJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQITHXTGDHUVQWILX
7: O AN KYJU VLHYZMUCHGSOOBWQGFIAUSCJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQITHXTGDHUVLWILX
8: O AN KYJU VLHYZMUCH SOOBWQGFIAUSCJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQITHXTGDHUVLDING
9: OHAN KYJU VEHYZMUCH SOOBWQGFIAUSEJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQITHXHGDHUVLDING
10: OHAN KYJU VEHYZMUCH SOO WQGRIAUSEJTNRBZMLYCSPUVQITHXHEXHUVLDING
11: OHAN KYJU VEHYZMUCH SOO YQGRIAUSENTNRBZMLYCSE VQITHXHEXHUVLDING
12: OHAN YOU VEHYZMUCH SOO YQGRIAUSENTNRB MLYCSE VQITHTHEXHUVLDING
13: OHAN YOU VEHYZMUCH FOO YQUR ATSENTNRB MLYCSE VQITHTHEXHUVLDING
14: THAN YOU VEHYZMUCH FOR YQUR ATSENTIOB MLYCSE VQITHTHEXHUVLDING
15: THANK YOU VEHYZMUCH FOR YQUR ATSENTION PLYCSE VQITHTHEXHUVLDING
16: THANK YOU VERYZMUCH FOR YQUR ATSENTION PLBASE VXITHTHEXHUVLDING
17: THANK YOU VERYZMUCH FOR YIUR ATSENTION PLBASE EXIT THE HUVLDING
18: THANK YOU VERYZMUCH FOR YOUR ATSENTION PLBASE EXIT THE BUILDING
19: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING
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