A response to "Genetic programming and emergence"

Banzhaf (Genet Program Evol Mach, 2013) raises some interesting points about emergence in the context of genetic programming. However, his central tenet, that genetic programming is an example of top-down emergence, is invalidated by the fact that the evolutionary framework and the system being evolved are two separate structures. Rather, genetic programming is an instance of one emergent system designing a second one. Biological evolution provides a better example of what could be considered top-down emergence.