We can slow the propagation speed and increase population size. Another option is to use a metric like hamming distance over the programs to determine if two neighbors should even be allowed to interact.
If we can come up with an accurate per-candidate fitness metric, there are techniques like fitness niching that can be much more accurate & flexible. Only allowing candidates within a certain range of performance to interact is one of the most powerful knobs you can turn for controlling convergence speed. Adjusting the niche radius over time is trivial.
If we can come up with an accurate per-candidate fitness metric, there are techniques like fitness niching that can be much more accurate & flexible. Only allowing candidates within a certain range of performance to interact is one of the most powerful knobs you can turn for controlling convergence speed. Adjusting the niche radius over time is trivial.