---
title: "Parents: can children inherit knowledge?"
description: "A small genetic-algorithm experiment: what happens to a population when children inherit their parents' knowledge?"
date: 2017-04-21T11:44:15+02:00
lastmod: 2026-10-16T18:58:52+02:00
url: https://klimek.link/projects/parents/
author: "Marcin Klimek"
source: https://klimek.link/projects/parents/
---

# Parents: can children inherit knowledge?

This is a small "what if" experiment that I wrote as a **genetic algorithm** in C++ with a Qt window.

Every individual in the population carries a list of "wisdom" values, and a child is made from two parents, getting for every position either the sum of both parents' values or one of them. The program runs the population for many generations and reports how the total knowledge changes, and the README shows the result as a plot.

*Diagram: How a child gets its values from two parents*

[Source on GitHub](https://github.com/marcinklimek/parents).

Source: https://klimek.link/projects/parents/