(ISNS) -- In music, as in evolutionary biology, it could be the
survival of the fittest. Scientists, using loops of computer
sounds as building blocks, found that by obtaining small
contributions from many people, or crowdsourcing, they can
create pleasant-sounding music, just the way biology produces
adapted organisms. In a paper published in this week's
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bob MacCallum
of Imperial College, London, and his colleagues demonstrate how
evolutionary pressure from audiences can shape music. "What
interests us is not that we can do a composer's job," he said.
"What interests us is that we can quantify the consumer or
listener's creative role." Music research is not MacCallum's day
job. He actually is an expert on the genetics of mosquitoes. He
also loves music. His paper is full of biological references,
describing how music is changed by the same mechanisms organisms
and languages use to evolve. MacCallum wrote a program called
DarwinTunes and posted it on the web. D