Answers.Body: <p>NEAT has a constant number of organisms in its population, which prevents overpopulation from happening.</p>
  
  <p>The process of mating includes the following steps. </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>The worst networks from every species are removed. </li>
  <li>All species receive a number of offsprings that they can have. This is calculated by an adjusted neural network fitness.</li>
  <li>Offsprings for species are divided among neural networks in those species. Fitter neural networks have more offsprings.</li>
  <li>Networks from the same species are combined and create an offspring.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><em>Speciation</em> prevents fast extinction.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-01-30T14:50:09.480Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-07-07T19:04:27.113Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2019-07-07T19:04:27.113Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Boris
Body: <p>In the <a href="http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/downloads/papers/stanley.ec02.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Evolving Neural Networks through Augmenting Topologies (NEAT)</a> paper it says (p. 110): </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The entire population is then replaced by the offspring of the remaining organisms in each species.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>But how does it take place? Are they paired and then mated? Could this lead to fast extinction? Or are they pair each with each other? This would lead to overpopulation very fast. <em>How are individuals paired, in NEAT</em>?</p>
  
Tags: <neural-networks><genetic-algorithms><evolutionary-algorithms><neat><neuroevolution>
Title: How does mating take place in NEAT?
UserDisplayName: Miemels
ThreadText: # How does mating take place in NEAT?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-01-18)
  
  In the [Evolving Neural Networks through Augmenting Topologies (NEAT)](http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/downloads/papers/stanley.ec02.pdf) paper it says (p. 110):
  
  > The entire population is then replaced by the offspring of the remaining organisms in each species.
  
  But how does it take place? Are they paired and then mated? Could this lead to fast extinction? Or are they pair each with each other? This would lead to overpopulation very fast. *How are individuals paired, in NEAT*?
  
  **Tags:** neural-networks, genetic-algorithms, evolutionary-algorithms, neat, neuroevolution
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-01-30. Score: 5
  
  NEAT has a constant number of organisms in its population, which prevents overpopulation from happening.
  
  The process of mating includes the following steps.
  
  1. The worst networks from every species are removed.
  2. All species receive a number of offsprings that they can have. This is calculated by an adjusted neural network fitness.
  3. Offsprings for species are divided among neural networks in those species. Fitter neural networks have more offsprings.
  4. Networks from the same species are combined and create an offspring.
  
  *Speciation* prevents fast extinction.
  
  
  ---
  
  