US Patent 7925605 Evolutionary expert systems and methods using meta-rules matching

In various embodiments, evolutionary expert systems and methods are disclosed. For example, a method for evolving a rule base of an expert system includes creating a set of meta-rules from a set of first rules associated with the expert system, creating a set of one or more generalized virtual rule candidates based on the set of first rules and the set of meta-rules, filtering the set of generalized virtual rule candidates to remove generalized virtual rule candidates that conflict with at least one rule of the set of first rules to form a set of virtual rules, and incorporating at least one virtual rule of the set of virtual rules into the set of first rules to evolve the first set of rules.