I must also stipulate that a built-in goal or direction of any kind does not figure anywhere in the programme. It is not necessary, evolution will take place regardless.
I disagree. Goal or direction is usually built into the following things:
Next, if you make a function that determines the fitness of the data copies and filter out the less fit for the next round of reproduction, you have implemented selection very exactly.
and
implement reproduction with random variation
Most obviously in the first (the determination of fitness). Without specifying some goal or direction in the fitness principles, the "evolution" implemented is not interpretable.
I've never seen a piece of research implementing an evolutionary algorithm without having a very specific purpose, and I can't imagine implementing one without specifying any purpose and getting any result that made any sense at all.
Maybe you could clairfy?
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