In Hayle's essay Narrating Bits, she mentions Karl Sim's Evolved Virtual Creatures as an example of "unknown unknowns" in a narrative. The idea is that these creatures will evolve via genetic algorithms in ways not even the author of the AI could have predicted.
These creatures are given an environment and a goal for survival (called the fitness function). The computer then evolves them by using genetic algorithms: the survivors' (the ones best fufilling the finess function) code is combined with other surviviors' code and the resulting creature is put to the same test. This is basically simulated natural selection.
Example fitness functions:
Many of the creatures actually resemble animals from real life (snake-like creatures that slither, crawlers, crab-like walkers, etc...), demonstrating that evolution is a very real phenomonon.
Another project Karl Sim did is Galapagos. It was an installation in the DeCordova? Museum in Mass. where 12 computer screens display 'creatures' and abstract forms. The viewer can then step in front of the monitor displaying what he thinks is an aesthetically pleasing creature. The computers then breed the favored creatures and allow them to mutate and evolve. 2
The interaction between humans and computer assisted evolution creates a very interesting narrative, telling a story of creatures being bred to the whims of the viewers of the story. In this way the narrative is very flowing and unpredictable, a conglamoration of "unknown unknowns" further propogated by the one experiencing the narrative.
Panspermia: "The theory that microorganisms or biochemical compounds from outer space are responsible for originating life on Earth and possibly in other parts of the universe where suitable atmospheric conditions exist."4
It is a computer animation with plants chosen from random mutations from an evolutionary algorithm.
They use a combination of genetic algorithms and other AI constructs to create creatures to enter into a race across a 2D terrain. It is based on a basic framework called Sodaconstructor which allows people to design and change models that fit the needs of the race.3
Shown above is a race between a human-designed model (daintywalker) and it's faster derivative created by an AI algorithm.
http://www.spiderland.org/breve/
Breve is an IDE for writing genetic algorithms and simulating evolution in a 3D environment. It includes a programming language called steve, with modules for modeling swarms, terrain walking, fountains, etc. It is an open source framework to do things similar to Karl Sim's work.
(Breve Demo)
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