A Comprehensive Guide To Genetic Algorithms -- The ELI5 Way

Genetic Algorithms are based on Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and are often used to solve problems in research and machine learning. In this article, we'll be looking at the fundamentals of Genetic Algorithms (GA) and how to solve optimization problems using them. Genetic algorithms were developed by John Henry Holland and his students and collaborators at the University of Michigan in the 1970s and 1980s. It is a subset of evolutionary algorithms, and it mimics the process of natural selection in which the fittest individuals survive and are chosen for cross-over to reproduce offsprings of the next-generation. The natural selection process also involves the addition of small randomness to the offsprings in the form of mutation.