title: What's the "Hello World!" of genetic algorithms good for?
body: <p>I found this <a href="http://www.generation5.org/content/2003/gahelloworld.asp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">very cool C++ sample</a> , literally the "Hello World!" of genetic algorithms.</p>
  
  <p>I so decided to re-code the whole thing in C# and <a href="http://dotnetbutchering.blogspot.com/2009/03/typing-monkeys-and-genetic-algorithms.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> is the result.</p>
  
  <p>Now I am asking myself: <strong>is there any practical application along the lines of generating a target string starting from a population of random strings?</strong></p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong>: my buddy on twitter just tweeted that <em>"is useful for transcription type things such as translation. Does not have to be Monkey's"</em>. I wish I had a clue.</p>