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Suppose that the salesman does not have a map showing the location of the towns, but only a deck of numbered cards, which he may permute, put in a card reader - like in the childhood of computers - and let the computer calculate the length of the tour. The probability to find the shortest tour by random permutation is about one in 10^80 so, it will never happen. So, should he give up?

Suppose that the salesman does not have a map showing the location of the towns, but only a deck of numbered cards, which he may permute, put in a card reader - like in the childhood of computers - and let the computer calculate the length of the tour. The probability to find the shortest tour by random permutation is about one in 10^80 so, it will never happen. So, should he give up?

No, by no means, evolution may be of great help to him; at least if it could be simulated on his computer. The natural evolution uses an [[inversion operator]], which - in principle - is taylored for finding good solutions to the problem. A part of the card deck - chosen at random - is taken out, turned in opposite direction and put back in the deck again like in the figure below with 6 towns. The hometown (nr 1) is not counted.

No, by no means, evolution may be of great help to him; at least if it could be simulated on his computer. The natural evolution uses an [[inversion operator]], which - in principle - is tailored for finding good solutions to the problem. A part of the card deck - chosen at random - is taken out, turned in opposite direction and put back in the deck again like in the figure below with 6 towns. The hometown (nr 1) is not counted.

[http://web.telia.com/~u91131915/resor7.GIF]

[http://web.telia.com/~u91131915/resor7.GIF]