A supercomputer generates and displays 16 images on an arc of screens. Visitors stand on sensors in front of the most aesthetically pleasing images to select which ones will survive and reproduce to make the next generation. It has been exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Ars Electronica, Linz, and the Interactive Media Festival, Los Angeles. Review by Kevin Kelly, Wired Sept. 1994. This process, taking place in various media, has led to the creation of many of the complex and wonderful phenomena of our world, including life, consciousness, language, and perhaps even art.
Evolution consists of a simple cycle.
The resulting offspring are copies or combinations of their parents but often with random alterations or mutations. Some offspring may be improvements on their parents, and as only the most fit of each new generation of offspring continue to reproduce, the population as a whole can slowly improve. We are aware of this process as it relates to biological organisms, but these same principles are also at work in other evolutionary systems. Many things propagate through the medium of human minds in a way resembling Darwinian evolution. Ideas, scientific theories, languages, religious beliefs, and artistic styles, could all be considered to be subject to the basic forces of reproduction and selection.