http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/2008/07/28#evol-design <P>That is, generating <a href="arch-design.html">designs</a> by evolutionary processes, of more-or-less random variation and selective retention of "what works". "Working" may be assessed either in practice, in the Realized World, or in some kind of <a href="simulation.html">simulation</a>. This could be done either informally or through some sort of automated <a href="evol-comp.html">evolutionary optimization algorithm</a>. <P>See also: <a href="evolving-local-rules.html">Evolving Local Rules to Perform Global Computations</a<> (or to satisfy global design criteria...) <ul>Recommended: <li><a href="christopher-alexander.html">Christopher Alexander,</A> <cite>Notes on the Synthesis of Form</cite> <li><a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/unamay/">Una-May O'Reilly</a> <li><a href="simon.html">Herbert Simon,</a> <cite>The Sciences of the Artificial</cite> </ul> <ul>To read: <li>George Basalla, <cite>The Evolution of Technology</cite> <li>Peter Bentley, "Aspects of Evolutionary Design by Computers", <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.NE/9809049">cs.NE/9809049</a> <li>Michael French, <cite>Invention and Evolution: Design in Nature and Engineering</cite> <li>Henry Petroski <ul> <li><cite>Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering</cite> [<a href="http://cambridge.org/0521466490">blurb</a>] <li><cite>Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design</cite> [<a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8132.html">blurb</a>] </ul> <li>John Ziman (ed.), <cite>Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process</cite> </ul>