If you want to read what I think is one of the coolest experiments with GAs I've ever seen, check out the paper "An evolved circuit, intrinsic in silicon, entwined with physics." by Adrian Thompson [0] - taking the bitstream of an FPGA and running it through a GA and them testing the hardware running in-circuit while judging fitness to a desired function. Crazy things ensue.

[0] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3-540-63173-9_61 but likely can be found online in other places