1. Popularity as Natural Selection A digital art project Submitted for the Darwin Bicentennial Art Competition By Paul Sawaya [email_address]

7. Inherently dynamic and interactive

8. Brings something over a hundred years old ( Darwin 's ideas) into a modern context

12. Popularity also changes over time.

13. Most searches for information on the web start at Google.com...

15. Why do we search for something on Google? What do we say about something when we Google it?

17. Some are what you'd expect

18. Others offer more interesting insight

20. Popularity- not approval (Source: BBC website, Gallup data)

22. Meme theory tells us that memes develop and evolve in the wild, just like genes. They self-replicate and mutate so that they can continue to spread.

23. The internet is a breeding ground for memes!

27. These creatures move across the space, fighting each other while bringing food back to their base.

28. As time passes, some creatures die while others thrive.

29. Demo

31. Algorithm that parses Trends data focuses on relative success and improvement, which is how “dawkins” is able to dominate the competition despite having a lower search volume than the others.

33. Drag creatures around the screen

35. Let the player enter the game and compete against the creatures himself.

41. Fun to watch or play.

44. Photonics? LSE? StuVI?

45. Setup would be similar to the web kiosks already on campus, except with a larger monitor, and perhaps some printed materials explaining the work and what it means.

46. Release open source version for web, “installed” in web browsers anywhere.

49. paulsawaya.com/blog