Subject: Re: Darwin Tunes From: Dan Stowell <dan.stowell@xxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:52:35 +0000 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Looks like a nice public project, but the use of the word "unique" is a little cheeky given the number of human-feedback-based evolutionary music systems there have been over the past couple of decades! Still, all the best, I hope plenty of people join in. Best Dan Aniruddh Patel wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > This project may interest some of you. > > (I just got this note from a colleague, > and am not affiliated with the project). > > Regards, > Ani Patel > > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: DarwinTunes launch > From: "Leroi, Armand M" <a.leroi@xxxxxxxx> > Date: Sat, November 21, 2009 8:58 am > To: "Leroi, Armand M" <a.leroi@xxxxxxxx> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Dear Colleagues, > > On Monday 23.11.09 we're launching an experiment concerned with the > evolution of music. We call it DarwinTunes. It's partly a public > experiment, so we'd be grateful if you'd distribute the news by any means > possible. But if you find it really interesting and want to be involved - > get in touch. > > best > > Armand > > > darwintunes.org - a test-tube for cultural evolution. > > <http://darwintunes.org> > > In the week that we mark 150 years since Darwin's "On the Origin of > Species", students at Imperial College London and members of the public > will be taking part in a unique experiment to answer the question "Does > culture evolve by natural selection?" > > Evolution has produced an astonishing variety of living things - plants, > animals, bacteria, viruses - every species being remarkable in some way, > for example the peacock's tail display or the trapdoor spider's cunning > trap. In recent years, it has been suggested (by Richard Dawkins among > others) that cultural phenomena evolve by similar mechanisms. Indeed, it > seems reasonable to suggest that songs, stories, jokes and other cultural > forms are passed, imperfectly, from person to person, the more appealing > versions get picked up and spread by more people, and so on. It's a kind > of Darwinian Chinese whispers, if you like. However plausible this may > seem, the hypothesis has never been tested and we know very little about > the underlying evolutionary mechanisms. The DarwinTunes experiment will > help us explore the origins of the cultural world. > > We have developed a computer algorithm that creates, breeds and mutates > short pieces of music. In this system, good music has more chances to > breed than bad music, thus providing the conditions for evolution by a > natural selection-like process. However, computers can't yet distinguish > good music from bad, so we have to use human ears and brains for this > task. We gather that human input through the DarwinTunes website. > >>From Monday 23 to Friday 27 November 2009, over 100 first year biology > students at Imperial College will each spend 10 minutes per day rating > music for DarwinTunes. We hope that members of the public will also > contribute on a special public "channel". This public channel will run > beyond the 27th and could provide the most impressive results of all if a > few thousand people participate for a few minutes per day. There's a > YouTube video to show you what to do, but it's very simple. > > At the end of the experiment, we hope to have a population of music that > is far more "musical" than the starting population which was founded by > two random pieces of music. We will then be able to study the > evolutionary dynamics and determine the key aesthetic qualities which > drive musical evolution. And finally, are human composers strictly > necessary? We may be able to answer that provocative question too. > > For further background and details of the experiment, please see > http://darwintunes.org/welcome > > Please contact Bob MacCallum or Armand Leroi for further information > (contact info and bio's at http://darwintunes.org/who-are-we) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Dear Colleagues, > > On Monday 23.11.09 we’re launching an experiment concerned with the > evolution of music. We call it *DarwinTunes*. It’s partly a public > experiment, so we’d be grateful if you’d distribute the news by any > means possible. But if you find it really interesting and want to be > involved — get in touch. > > best > > Armand > > * > darwintunes.org - a test-tube for cultural evolution. > > *<http://darwintunes.org> > > In the week that we mark 150 years since Darwin's "On the Origin of > Species", students at Imperial College London and members of the public > will be taking part in a unique experiment to answer the question "Does > culture evolve by natural selection?" > > Evolution has produced an astonishing variety of living things - plants, > animals, bacteria, viruses - every species being remarkable in some way, > for example the peacock's tail display or the trapdoor spider's cunning > trap. In recent years, it has been suggested (by Richard Dawkins among > others) that cultural phenomena evolve by similar mechanisms. Indeed, it > seems reasonable to suggest that songs, stories, jokes and other > cultural forms are passed, imperfectly, from person to person, the more > appealing versions get picked up and spread by more people, and so on. > It's a kind of Darwinian Chinese whispers, if you like. However > plausible this may seem, the hypothesis has never been tested and we > know very little about the underlying evolutionary mechanisms. The > DarwinTunes experiment will help us explore the origins of the cultural > world. > > We have developed a computer algorithm that creates, breeds and mutates > short pieces of music. In this system, good music has more chances to > breed than bad music, thus providing the conditions for evolution by a > natural selection-like process. However, computers can't yet distinguish > good music from bad, so we have to use human ears and brains for this > task. We gather that human input through the DarwinTunes website. > >>From Monday 23 to Friday 27 November 2009, over 100 first year biology students at Imperial College will each spend 10 minutes per day rating music for DarwinTunes. *We hope that members of the public will also contribute on a special > public "channel". This public channel will run beyond the 27th and could > provide the most impressive results of all if a few thousand people > participate for a few minutes per day.* There's a YouTube video to show > you what to do, but it's very simple. > > At the end of the experiment, we hope to have a population of music that > is far more "musical" than the starting population which was founded by > two random pieces of music. We will then be able to study the > evolutionary dynamics and determine the key aesthetic qualities which > drive musical evolution. And finally, are human composers strictly > necessary? We may be able to answer that provocative question too. > > For further background and details of the experiment, please see > http://darwintunes.org/welcome > > Please contact Bob MacCallum or Armand Leroi for further information > (contact info and bio's at http://darwintunes.org/who-are-we) -- Dan Stowell Centre for Digital Music School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road, London E1 4NS http://www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/department/staff/research/dans.htm http://www.mcld.co.uk/