Radio 4 is playing next to me.
I’m that damn rock n’ roll.
And they’re talking about a team of scientists who are trying to evolve music from noise. (Actually, now they’re talking about sustainable living and whether or not we should care about resources running out, because the Today program does have some similarities to a child with ADD.)
Robert MacCallum started with a series of noise loops, and asked people to pick the ones they liked best.
The most popular were allowed to breed – a computer mixed 2 popular loops to make a new one.
The rest were thrown out of the gene pool.
People were then asked to vote on the next generation, and the cycle repeated again.
You can go play at the Darwin Tunes website.
Evolutionary processes are amazing. Circuits can be ‘evolved’ to perform a task and reach the point where even their builders don’t quite know how they work. Computer programs designed to ‘evolve’ solutions to a problem come up with hugely varied solutions from the most basic starting points.
Because survival of the fittest works. It’s how every creature on this planet got where it is today.
(To every Creationist reading here… just stop it. Adults are talking.)
And you can apply it to anything.
Including your business and your marketing.
Evolution is a market, and one that’s rather closer to perfect than the market for businesses.
So if you’re looking to try something new or do something a bit differently, whether it’s a new marketing channel, a new product line or even starting a whole new business…
Don’t try to come up with a new idea from scratch. That’s the creationist approach. Try evolving. Look at what other people are doing, see what works, then do it better.
