BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!

Subject: ... and other fun
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 08:42 AM

Have a look at
this site. You select pairs of "poems" as parents and "breed" an offspring. I don't think an of you writers need hang up your pens yet!

At the same site, but even more interesting (IMO): some translations of Jaberwocky into various languages (including Klingon!); a whole new dimension in surrealism.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: mack/misophist
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 10:57 AM

Jaberwocky in Klingon is deeply moving. I find hope for mankind in the fact that it was translated by a Chinese.

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 04:48 PM

It said to choose
I guess I'll lose;
Lacking choices worthy
Theirs were all so turdy!

Seriously, the two choices I got were gawdawfull! Interesting experiment, though. Thanks for posting it!

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 03:12 AM

Thanks to New Scientist mag for pointing me to it! Here's the piece in full:

Poetry website goes from bad to verse

Vogons, fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will recall, wrote poetry so bad it could kill. Now an experiment to create poems on the web looks likely to automate the awfulness of Vogon verse.
David Rea of Greenwich, Connecticut, has written a program that allows a poem to evolve, to see if people with diverse tastes in poetry can work together to create attractive verse.
Rea's program starts off with 1000 "poems", each comprising four lines of five randomly chosen words. People visiting the website choose between two randomly selected verses from the population. The bad ones are killed off and the fittest - those with the most positive votes - undergo further evolution.
Each word within a verse is thought of as a poetic gene. There are a possible 30,000 words, and as people vote, some genomes will prove more popular than others as they form semi-meaningful phrases. So the fittest verses are "mated" to form new verses, and the offspring again put to the public vote.
With more than 16,000 votes in already, Rea says, poetic structure is emerging. But in evolutionary terms, the poems are still a metaphor short of a mudskipper. As New Scientist went to press, one read: "You with life down the swords / How quieting tressed / Prince held by posers / Could be honking fight trekking."
Should it survive? You decide here.

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: Shelley C
Date: 25 Jul 03 - 01:13 PM

Thanks for this thread I think its fascinating. Do you think we'll notice the poems getting better the more we vote? Or is that going to take a very long time?

Shelley

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: Shelley C
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 02:06 PM

The poems are definitely getting better already. Have you had a look recently, Steve?

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 03:01 PM

"The Folk Prcess" is all about the way great poetry can evolve from the most unpromising beginnings.

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 03:06 AM

They've certainly got better sinvce last week!

Subject: RE: BS: Darwinian poetry: breed a better poem!
From: JennyO
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 01:30 PM

Hmm yes, it is showing signs of improvement, at least in places - "soulful nebulosity of mist" ........ "hellhound meteorites" ....................not bad!