[Socbin] [mildly off topic] DarwinTunes public experiment

[Bob MacCallum]

Back in 2003, I asked members of this list to participate in an experiment
to rate views of protein structures via the web.

http://www.sbc.su.se/~oscar/ovop/
http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/7/882

It was pretty groundbreaking stuff in those days.  We got a really good
response and, thankfully, it validated our approach.  Thanks again to those
who helped!

Now I have another experiment needing the help of sentient web beings.  It's
not really bioinformatics though (but it's still my day job).  It's about
evolution, and more specifically, the evolution of culture: music, art,
sculpture, and so on.  Prof Armand Leroi (of TV and book fame) and I are the
lead collaborators this project, which we've called DarwinTunes.  As you
already guessed, we're seeing if we can evolve music without human
composers;
instead we have "human fitness functions" - the listeners to our live audio
stream.  In the background an evolutionary algorithm, our first attempt at a
model of cultural evolution, is generating the music.

http://darwintunes.org

We've enlisted 120 first year students at Imperial College London to be our
main selective force.  They log in and rate some "private" channels.  We
also
have a "public channel" which is going strong (3000 tunes rated so far).  If
you could spare some of your time to take part, we'd be very grateful.
No registration needed, and if you have iTunes, it should all work without a
hitch.  (Most other media players work too.)  We're aiming for 5000 ratings
(50 generations) but are happy if it goes even further...

Thanks very much for your time.

best regards,

Bob MacCallum.

-- 
Bob MacCallum | VectorBase Developer | Kafatos/Christophides Groups |
Division of Cell and Molecular Biology | Imperial College London |
Phone +442075941945 | Email r.maccallum at imperial.ac.uk
http://darwintunes.org - a test-tube for cultural evolution
http://twitter.com/darwintunes
http://evolectronica.com - survival of the funkiest
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