Random Thought

A search algorithm layered on top of (or underneath, I suppose) an evolutionary search that finds areas of broad neutrality and pushes the population out to the edges by way of a gradient search.

If a mutation is found to be nearly neutral, pause evolution and probe in the direction of the mutation, looking for the range of neutrality. Then spawn children within that range (stocasticly or evenly distributed).

Rough idea: more efficiently take advantage of neutral planes.

Although it would surely suck, I'd be interested in watching this method taken to the extreme-- that is, doing an exhaustive search for neutral areas periodically. Perhaps a reasonable approach when evolution stalls.