Short Book Reviews and Comments

These are short comments and reviews on my book some of my readers were kind enough to send me. They are very important to me and I cherish every word. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! As usual, I removed any references that could identify the people involved.

• I only came across GEP a couple of weeks ago. I am fascinated by it...
• One thing I really value about this book is the biology in the beginning...
• I think GEP is great, and I would like to see the EC field get into it sooner than...
• I'm enjoying your book so much! It's fun to read for me because the stuff is...
• Your book is terrific – very well written and organized. Everything just...
• Your writing is smooth and interesting, and the ideas presented are like...
• I’ve been following with much interest your GEP approach since you first...

***

I only came across GEP a couple of weeks ago. I am fascinated by it – it makes sense and seems to be very powerful. I also found out that some friends of mine have already implemented it and are obtaining good results (rapid solutions, minimal "bloat").

From the GEP biblio it looks like, alas, the EC "community" has either not realized your presence or, more likely, you are getting a cold shoulder. It's certainly ironic, because here is really the *first* person who is equally at home in both natural and artificial genetics. (Your sections in the book about natural genetics have been enlightening for me.) It seems poetic justice that someone who takes natural genetics seriously and extracts the relevant essence should produce such a powerful and "unexpected" advance!!
 

***

One thing I really value about this book is the biology in the beginning – substantial, but written from a perspective which helps a computer scientist understand the essentials. You are uniquely positioned in the field for this!
 

***

I think GEP is great, and I would like to see the EC field get into it sooner than of course will eventually occur anyway! The key innovation of GEP – the genotype/phenotype pair and the fact that all genotypes decode to syntactically legal phenotypes – is too good to be ignored.
 

***

I'm enjoying your book so much! It's fun to read for me because the stuff is so inventive, and I love all the clever things that seem to be implicit in the idea.
 

***

Your book is terrific – very well written and organized. Everything just flows so smoothly, it reads like a novel. The only algorithm I had a little trouble understanding was polynomial induction, but I got there in the end and, wow, these structures can grow! And the chapters on neural networks and decision trees, I just love them – you explain them quite nicely. I’ve always had trouble figuring out what exactly a neural network is and now I can finally say I really understand them – I’m even thinking of implementing one myself!
 

***

Your writing is smooth and interesting, and the ideas presented are like opening another secret box in each chapter.
 

***

I’ve been following with much interest your GEP approach since you first announced it online in 2000 and I had a feeling at the time that something major was about to happen in AI. Your book didn’t disappoint in that regard – it’s really amazing the stuff one can do with GEP and how simple you make everything look. I just had to go and implement it myself – I think I’m hooked! Thanks!!
 

Questions & Answers

***