Current Applications
Genetic Algorithms have many applicants in the world today. Genetic Algorithms are especially useful in solving Global Optimization problems, or problems whose solutions are an optimization of a function or a set of functions, as they do not usually get stuck at local optima, but find the best solution. They thus have applications in almost all fields, including bioengineering, physics, chemistry, economics, engineering et al., as well as all sorts of planning and scheduling tasks.
John Koza and his Invention Machine
A recent application of Genetic Algorithms, featured in Popular Science magazine, was created by John Koza. His creation is a super-computer, composed of over 1,000 individual computers networked together, using a specially formulated genetic algorithm. This super-computer, accurately named the Invention Machine, has designed, among other things, a high powered telescope lens that outperforms the best designed by humans so far, and an strangely shaped antenna that is more effictive than NASA's scientists could create. It has even received a patent for a system to make factories more efficent, one of the first non-human things to get intellectual property protection.
Koza's machine brings up the question of the value of the human mind. Will a machine that can invent creative solutions to any sort of problem put human inventors "out of business"? Will scientists and engineers become obsolete? Luckily for us, however, there are two things that the Invention Machine still cannot do. First, it cannot identify problems, only solve them. It still needs the aid of humans. Second, its powers are limited to problem-solving; the Invention Machine cannot comprehend a science, and advance human knowledge of the world.