No Free Lunch Theorems for Search

@techreport{citeulike:392178, abstract = {We show that all algorithms that search for an extremum of a cost function perform exactly the same, when averaged over all possible cost functions. In particular, if algorithm A outperforms algorithm B on some cost functions, then loosely speaking there must exist exactly as many other functions where B outperforms A. Starting from this we analyze a number of the other a priori characteristics of the search problem, like its geometry and its information-theoretic aspects. This analysis allows...}, address = {Santa Fe, NM}, author = {Wolpert, David H. and Macready, William G. }, citeulike-article-id = {392178}, keywords = {no\_free\_lunch, seminal}, number = {SFI-TR-95-02-010}, posted-at = {2007-11-21 22:10:54}, priority = {0}, title = {No Free Lunch Theorems for Search}, url = {http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/wolpert95no.html}, year = {1995} }

TY - RPRT ID - citeulike:392178 L3 - citeulike-article-id:392178 TI - No Free Lunch Theorems for Search IS - SFI-TR-95-02-010 AD - Santa Fe, NM N2 - We show that all algorithms that search for an extremum of a cost function perform exactly the same, when averaged over all possible cost functions. In particular, if algorithm A outperforms algorithm B on some cost functions, then loosely speaking there must exist exactly as many other functions where B outperforms A. Starting from this we analyze a number of the other a priori characteristics of the search problem, like its geometry and its information-theoretic aspects. This analysis allows... KW - no_free_lunch KW - seminal AU - Wolpert, David AU - Macready, William PY - 1995/// UR - http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/wolpert95no.html ER -