>Suppose we consider a large number,
>N, of foursomes, each with their own deck of cards. The cards are dealt.
>After the deal, the hands are ranked according to the number of one
>particular suit (say clubs) that appears in them and the top x percent are
>selected. These hands are reproduced and given to the other players who
>had smaller numbers of clubs. Then each player is allowed to combine hands
>with one other player to produce a single hand with the maximum number of
>clubs. All cards given to "offspring" are replaced and the selection
>process is repeated. In a scenario like this you can show that the
>exponential allocation proven by Goldberg for genetic algorithms will
>occur: the number of hands with large numbers of clubs will increase
>exponentially.>>
>
Jim Bell asked
>Am I missing something here, or is this scenario about a group of intelligent
>players with a specific teleology in mind, and a specific strategy to reach
>it?
An excellent question that may help us resolve some communication
difficulties -- as I see them, anyway.
As I've posed the scenario, there are some cards which are from time to
time being maniplated by the players. The players have no role other than
periodically combining hands to get a better hand according to some
criteria.