Speculative asynchronous sub-population evolutionary computing

A computer implemented method for speculative evolutionary computing, the method comprising:

• receiving fitness values for a first generation of a first sub-population of a plurality of sub-populations, wherein a population of candidate solutions for an optimization problem was previously divided into the plurality of sub-populations, wherein the population of candidate solutions was created for an iterative computing process in accordance with an evolutionary algorithm to identify a most fit candidate solution for the optimization problem;
• determining, by one or more processors, whether the first generation of the first sub-population does not satisfy a termination criterion for the iterative computing processing;
• determining whether the first generation corresponds to a later iteration of the iterative computing process than a second generation of a second sub-population of the plurality of sub-populations;
• determining whether a difference between the first generation and the second generation does not exceed a termination speculation threshold;
• and
• generating a third generation of the first sub-population responsive to a determination that the difference between the first generation and the second generation does not exceed the termination speculation threshold, wherein the generating the third generation of the first sub-population is based, at least in part, on the fitness values.