Darwinian PoetryHuh? Ok, here's the idea: starting with a whole bunch (specifically 1,200) randomly generated groups of words (our "poems"), we are going to subject them to a form of natural selection, killing off the "bad" ones and breeding the "good" ones with each other. If enough generations go by, and if the gene pool is rich enough, we should eventually start to see interesting poems emerge. The cool part is that YOU are the arbiter of what constitutes "good" and "bad" poetry. Once you start, you will be presented with two poems. In all likelihood they will both be abysmal pieces of nonsensical garbage. That's ok. All you have to do is read them both and pick the one you find more appealing, for whatever reason. Your decision might be based on a single word that you happen to like. It doesn't matter. Just pick whichever one strikes your fancy. Once you choose a poem, your vote will be recorded and two more poems will appear. Keep doing this for as long as you like, and definitely come back frequently. Over time the poems picked by you, and I hope by thousands of other people, will interbreed and more and more interesting poems will emerge. It could take a while. Weeks...months...I don't know. It all depends on how many people participate, and how often. Is it working? Decide for yourself: first look at some of the initial random poems then look at some more evolved ones from a dozen or so generations later. Keep coming back, for (I hope) the population will evolve steadily, so each day could bring increasingly interesting poems. That's it. Just click on the "Start Here" link below to dive right in. Or click the "Reporting" link to find out what the current highest rated poem is, as well as to see other statistics.
Start Here!
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