6.7NEMay 26
Evolutionary Data Theory: On the Similarities between Data Problems and Evolutionary GamesPhilipp Wissgott
Applying the concepts and formalisms from Evolutionary Game Theory to the data regime, the fundamental paradigms of Evolutionary Data Theory are introduced. Interpreting data in matrix form as evolutionary entities, input data is mapped to genes and organisms. Steered by genetic fitness and two evolutionary strategies, Dominant-Balanced and Altruistic-Selfish, data records and features conduct an evolutionary game. It is shown that this evolutionary interpretation remains universally meaningful, by proving convergence to a unique rest point, where all data features persist in the population. A basic example of multi-objective optimization is shown as well as a related distribution problem.
OCNov 9, 2025
Feature weighting for data analysis via evolutionary simulationAris Daniilidis, Alberto Domínguez Corella, Philipp Wissgott
We analyze an algorithm for assigning weights prior to scalarization in discrete multi-objective problems arising from data analysis. The algorithm evolves the weights (the relevance of features) by a replicator-type dynamic on the standard simplex, with update indices computed from a normalized data matrix. We prove that the resulting sequence converges globally to a unique interior equilibrium, yielding non-degenerate limiting weights. The method, originally inspired by evolutionary game theory, differs from standard weighting schemes in that it is analytically tractable with provable convergence.