I haven't done much of a survey, but I stumbled into this and looks promising: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_swarm_optimization http://en.wikipedia.org

I haven't done much of a survey, but I stumbled into this and looks promising: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_swarm_optimization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_swarm_optimization I found this book a very enjoyable read (edit: and a lot less intimidating than the Wikipedia article!). Be warned, though, that it's one or two chapters worth of technical detail. The rest goes to motivating the subject and exploring its philosophical implications. And that is OK, because the algorithm is actually quite simple. http://tinyurl.com/lns85a http://tinyurl.com/lns85a