I saw this book on HN several years ago, and thought it was pretty interesting, and maybe worth reading.

Unluckily, it didn't help me very much in learning more about this field, nor did I think it was very helpful for solving other problems. Basically, it's more of an encyclopedia than a textbook, and not a good starting point.

Every post is basically separated into "biological inspiration", a brief description of the algorithm itself, and then a listing of the pseudocode and Ruby code.

The primary thing I was left wanting was 1. Either an intuitive explanation of why the algorithm worked well or a more rigorous mathematical explanation. 2. A comparison with the other algorithms.

TL;DR: A good book for what it is. However, if you're somebody looking for an introduction to these algorithms, look elsewhere.

What do you suggest?

A good free book is https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/book/metaheuristics/

Otherwise this is a good start: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Evolutionary-Computing-N...

Thank you! The first - free - book is great so far.

Nature-inspired recipes can be categorized as "biomimicry".

I came across this video [1] the other day, which described the design inspirations the Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train took from nature.

[1]: https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/11/9/16628106/biomimicry-des...

I suggest readers to watch this video to get the very profoundness.

I'd love this book but unfortunately I can only address it as a starting point. It's good enough for a collection but it isn't a survey neither a complete book. I've worked a lot with evolution strategies and the starting point was this book although a bit limiting.