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Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep is a collaborative volunteer computing project that uses a genetic algorithm to animate and evolve fractal flames. The generated animations are downloaded to networked computers and displayed as a screensaver. Created by programmer and software artist Scott Draves in 1999, the project harnesses the idle processing power of hundreds of thousands of computers to form a distributed render farm.
As users watch the screensaver, they can vote on their favorite animations. These votes act as the fitness function for the genetic algorithm, allowing the network to "breed" the most popular designs into new, evolving animations. Operating at the intersection of artificial life, generative art, and distributed computing, the project is widely recognized as a pioneering work of digital art. It has been exhibited at major museums including Prix Ars Electronica and the MoMA.
Electric Sheep was created in 1999 by software artist and computer scientist Scott Draves. The visual foundation of the project relies on the "fractal flame" algorithm, an extension of iterated function systems (IFS) which Draves created and released as open-source software in 1992.
The name "Electric Sheep" is an homage to the 1968 science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Draves used the title to mirror the architectural nature of the project: when a user's computer goes to sleep, the screensaver activates and the machine begins rendering (dreaming) the fractal movies (the sheep). Over the years, the software was ported to multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, and later mobile platforms like iOS and Android.
Unlike traditional fractals (such as the Mandelbrot set), which are rendered by escaping time algorithms, the visuals in Electric Sheep are created using the fractal flame algorithm. Fractal flames differ from standard iterated function systems in three distinct ways:
Because rendering high-quality, anti-aliased fractal animations requires massive amounts of processing power, the software acts similarly to the SETI@home project. It links the idle computers of all the users running the screensaver into a single, global supercomputer.
When a user installs the screensaver, their computer becomes a node in a peer-to-peer and client-server hybrid network. A central server directs the network, assigning specific frames of a fractal animation to individual computers. Each client computer calculates its small piece of the larger animation, uploads the data back to the server, and then downloads the completed video files to display on the screen.
The project functions as an ongoing artificial life experiment. The server stores a "flock" of animations at any given time. The "DNA" or genotype of each sheep consists of roughly 130 parameters—mathematical variables that dictate the color, motion, and shape of the fractal flame. The resulting video animation is the phenotype.
Hub AI
Electric Sheep AI simulator
(@Electric Sheep_simulator)
Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep is a collaborative volunteer computing project that uses a genetic algorithm to animate and evolve fractal flames. The generated animations are downloaded to networked computers and displayed as a screensaver. Created by programmer and software artist Scott Draves in 1999, the project harnesses the idle processing power of hundreds of thousands of computers to form a distributed render farm.
As users watch the screensaver, they can vote on their favorite animations. These votes act as the fitness function for the genetic algorithm, allowing the network to "breed" the most popular designs into new, evolving animations. Operating at the intersection of artificial life, generative art, and distributed computing, the project is widely recognized as a pioneering work of digital art. It has been exhibited at major museums including Prix Ars Electronica and the MoMA.
Electric Sheep was created in 1999 by software artist and computer scientist Scott Draves. The visual foundation of the project relies on the "fractal flame" algorithm, an extension of iterated function systems (IFS) which Draves created and released as open-source software in 1992.
The name "Electric Sheep" is an homage to the 1968 science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Draves used the title to mirror the architectural nature of the project: when a user's computer goes to sleep, the screensaver activates and the machine begins rendering (dreaming) the fractal movies (the sheep). Over the years, the software was ported to multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, and later mobile platforms like iOS and Android.
Unlike traditional fractals (such as the Mandelbrot set), which are rendered by escaping time algorithms, the visuals in Electric Sheep are created using the fractal flame algorithm. Fractal flames differ from standard iterated function systems in three distinct ways:
Because rendering high-quality, anti-aliased fractal animations requires massive amounts of processing power, the software acts similarly to the SETI@home project. It links the idle computers of all the users running the screensaver into a single, global supercomputer.
When a user installs the screensaver, their computer becomes a node in a peer-to-peer and client-server hybrid network. A central server directs the network, assigning specific frames of a fractal animation to individual computers. Each client computer calculates its small piece of the larger animation, uploads the data back to the server, and then downloads the completed video files to display on the screen.
The project functions as an ongoing artificial life experiment. The server stores a "flock" of animations at any given time. The "DNA" or genotype of each sheep consists of roughly 130 parameters—mathematical variables that dictate the color, motion, and shape of the fractal flame. The resulting video animation is the phenotype.