What are some emergent web projects that let you watch things evolve through a lot of small individual decisions?

September 14, 2004 11:53 AM

Neato emergent web projects? Where lots of people make tiny decisions and you can watch large things evolve? OK, specifically, there was this great project where a visitor toggled a single pixel on a character and over time an entire font would 'solidify'...link to that, and more stuff like that?
posted by freebird to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Some links here.
posted by vacapinta at 1:08 PM on September 14, 2004

My friend Jason created a simple but fun site called Chessvote.com where groups vote to determine what the next move should be.
posted by Voivod at 2:03 PM on September 14, 2004

i used to have some cgi scripts that let you breed images. if you want i can send you the code (but don't expect any support - please only ask if you can figure out python cgi scripts on your own). people selected two parents from a small population and a child replaced one of the existing images. old screen shot here.
posted by andrew cooke at 3:15 PM on September 14, 2004

vacapinta's link leading to The Smaller Picture is great! If you play the animation on the attempt to make an arrow, for example, you will see how it all has come together and then fallen apart several times. Such a great allegory for all of humankind's attempts at social structuring and communal advancement.

Here's the Typophile link you mentioned, freebird.
posted by taz at 11:28 PM on September 14, 2004