Electric Sheep

Electric Sheep: Generative Screensaver Software

A collaborative generative screensaver software creating abstract animations and visuals on your screen, leveraging networked computers to co-evolve algorithms.

What is Electric Sheep?

Electric Sheep is a generative screensaver software for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android that creates abstract, ever-changing animations and visuals which run continuously on the user's screen when the screensaver mode is turned on. It was created by Scott Draves in 1999.

The software uses the idle computing resources of thousands of networked computers to run a collaborative distributed computing project called the Electric Sheep server. This server evolves complex fractal animations known as sheep, which users can vote on. The more popular sheep animations survive and reproduce to form new generations of sheep, while the least favored ones fade away, mimicking the process of natural selection.

Users can influence this evolutionary process by liking or disliking the different sheep they see. This helps guide the mutations taking place on the server to produce more visually appealing and complex animations over time. The software also allows users to design their own sheep which can be shared and reproduced across the network.

Overall, Electric Sheep offers a unique experience where users can enjoy ever-evolving, organic artwork on their screens driven by distributed community participation and evolution. With over 50,000 active users worldwide contributing their idle computing resources, it represents one of the largest and longest-running distributed computing visual arts projects to date.

Electric Sheep Features

Official Links