astronomy

John Henry Holland

John Henry Holland is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Henry Holland rather than just read about it. In short: John Henry Holland (February 2, 1929 – August 9, 2015) was an American scientist and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. He was a pioneer in what became known as genetic algorithms.

Key takeaways

John Henry Holland belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Henry Holland to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Henry Holland from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Henry Holland (February 2, 1929 – August 9, 2015) was an American scientist and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. He was a pioneer in what became known as genetic algorithms.

Biography John Henry Holland was born on February 2, 1929 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the elder child of Gustave A. Holland (b. July 24, 1896, Russian Poland) and Mildred P. Gfroerer (b. July 1, 1901, Columbus Grove, Ohio). He had one younger sister, Shirley Ann "Hollie" Holland (born c. 1931). Holland studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a B.S. degree in 1950. He then studied Mathematics at the University of Michigan, receiving an M.S. in 1954. In 1959, he received the first computer science Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He was a Professor of psychology and Professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He held visiting positions at the Rowland Institute for Science and the University of Bergen. According to Carl Simon, professor of mathematics, economics, complex systems and public policy, "Holland is best known for his role as a founding father of the complex systems approach. In particular, he developed genetic algorithms and learning classifier systems. These foundational building blocks of an evolutionary approach to optimization are now included in all texts on optimization and programming." Holland was a member of the Board of Trustees and Science Board of the Santa Fe Institute and a fellow of the World Economic Forum. Holland received the 1961 Louis E. Levy Medal from The Franklin Institute, and the MacArthur Fellowship in 1992. He was profiled extensively in chapters 5 and 7 of the book Complexity (1993), by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Holland died on August 9, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Work Holland frequently lectured around the world on his own research, and on research and open questions in complex adaptive systems (CAS) studies. In 1975, he wrote the ground-breaking book on genetic algorithms, "Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems". He also developed Holland's schema theorem.

Publications Holland authored a number of books about complex adaptive systems, including:

Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems (1975, MIT Press) Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity (1995, Basic Books); reviewed by Mark S. Miller in Reason Emergence: From Chaos to Order (1998, Basic Books) Signals and Boundaries: Building Blocks for Complex Adaptive Systems (2012, MIT Press) Complexity: A Very Short Introduction (2014, Oxford University Press) Articles, a selection:

"A universal computer capable of executing an arbitrary number of subprograms simultaneously", in: Proc. Eastern Joint Comp. Conf. (1959), pp. 108–112 "Iterative circuit computers", in: Proc. Western Joint Comp. Conf. (1960), pp. 259–265 "Outline for a logical theory of adaptive systems", in: JACM, Vol 9 (1962), no. 3, pp. 279–314 "Hierarchical descriptions, universal spaces, and adaptive systems", in: Arthur W. Burks, editor. Essays on Cellular Automata (1970). University of Illinois Press "Using Classifier Systems to Study Adaptive Nonlinear Networks", in: Daniel L. Stein, editor. Lectures in the Sciences of Complexity (1989). Addison Wesley "Concerning the Emergence of Tag-Mediated Lookahead in Classifier Systems", in: Stephanie Forrest, editor. Emergent Computation: self-organizing, collective, and cooperative phenomena in natural and computing networks (1990). MIT Press "The Royal Road for Genetic Algorithms: Fitness Landscapes and GA Performance", in: Francisco J. Varela, Paul Bourgine, editors. Toward a Practice of Autonomous Systems: proceedings of the first European conference on Artificial Life (1992). MIT Press "Echoing Emergence: objectives, rough definitions, and speculations for ECHO-class models", in: George A. Cowan, David Pines, David Meltzer, editors. Complexity: metaphors, models, and reality (1994), Addison-Wesley "Can There Be A Unified Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems?", in: Harold J. Morowitz, Jerome L. Singer, editors. The Mind, The Brain, and Complex Adaptive Systems (1995). Addison-Wesley "Board Games", in: John Brockman, editor. The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years (2000). Phoenix "What is to Come and How to Predict It.", in: John Brockman, editor. The Next Fifty Years: science in the first half of the twenty-first century (2002). Weidenfeld & Nicolson

References

External links

Complexity science pioneer John Holland passes away at 86 at santafe.edu Biography Echo project Archived October 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine of John Holland at the Santa Fe Institute

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Henry Holland

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Henry Holland claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Henry Holland before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Henry Holland ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Henry Holland

In research: John Henry Holland appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Henry Holland in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Henry Holland is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, 2015 deaths, 20th-century American psychologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Henry Holland outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Henry Holland in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Henry Holland means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Henry Holland out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Henry Holland in simple terms?

Why does John Henry Holland matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Henry Holland?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Henry Holland.