Evolutionary programming to optimize an assembly program

Evolutionary programming was used to attempt to optimize a program written in the pseudo-assembly language Redcode, invented by A.K. Dewdney. Corewars is the game under which Redcode programs compete. Since 1994, the last standardization of Redcode, many complicated, effective Redcode programs have been written by people, but intense study is required to learn the nuances of the language and perfect programs. Since this is such a difficult task, evolutionary techniques may outperform humans. Multiple point, variable length crossover and change, insert, and delete mutations were the operators used. Relative fitnesses were calculated within a subset of the population on remote client computers. A food model was used to select the most fit programs. Current results are preliminary, but already one of the resulting programs wins 38% and ties 29% against a common type of human-written program. The best performance is 151 wins, 49 losses, and 0 ties against a typical human program.