Before the invention of metafonts, a designer would have to design each character of a font by hand, which took ample time and effort. With the invention of metafonts, the designer could quickly produce many iterations of a font by changing the inputs/parameters of the design on a computer program. I imagine that the invention of the metafont helped many designers work more efficiently and expansively. I also imagine that some designers resisted the idea of the metafont, viewing it as a cheap and overly mechanic way of designing, due to the loss of the human hand in the design process.
If there was a computer program in which you could input information/set parameters to generate unique images/drawings/painting, how would this invention affect the evolution of art ? Imagine there were inputs/parameters you could set in which you could select not only the size/shape/medium of the artwork, but also the mood/style/affect. You could also input outside references and influences of other artists, etc.