This module implements a Genetic Algorithm (GA) in pure Perl. Other Perl 
modules that achieve the same thing (perhaps better, perhaps worse) do 
exist. Please check CPAN. I mainly wrote this module to satisfy my own 
needs, and to learn something about GAs along the way.

I will not go into the details of GAs here, but here are the bare basics. 
Plenty of information can be found on the web.

In a GA, a population of individuals compete for survival. Each individual 
is designated by a set of genes that define its behaviour. Individuals 
that perform better (as defined by the fitness function) have a higher 
chance of mating with other individuals. When two individuals mate, they 
swap some of their genes, resulting in an individual that has properties 
from both of its "parents". Every now and then, a mutation occurs where 
some gene randomly changes value, resulting in a different individual. If 
all is well defined, after a few generations, the population should 
converge on a "good-enough" solution to the problem being tackled.

WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/AI-Genetic/