View source for Electric Sheep

{{Short description|Volunteer computing screensaver}}
{{Other uses}}
{{multiple issues |
{{more citations needed|date=August 2020}}
{{notability|Products|date=August 2020}}
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{{Infobox software
| name                   = Electric Sheep
| title                  = 
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = Electricsheep-3404 Large.jpg
| caption                = 
| collapsible            = 
| author                 = 
| developer              = [[Scott Draves]]
| released               = {{Start date and age|1999}}
| discontinued           = 
| latest release version = 3.0.2 on Mac, 3.0.2 on Windows
| latest release date    = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date    = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| programming language   = 
| operating system       = [[Linux]], [[macOS]], [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Android (operating system)|Android]], [[Apple TV]], [[iPadOS]], [[iOS]]
| platform               = 
| size                   = 
| language               = 
| genre                  = [[Screensaver]]
| license                = Client: [[GNU General Public License]]<br/>Server: not available for 2.7.x
| website                = {{URL|www.electricsheep.org}}
}}

[[File:Electricsheep-0-1000.jpg|thumb|200px|Another sample sheep.]]
'''Electric Sheep''' is a [[volunteer computing]] project for animating and evolving [[fractal flame]]s, which are in turn distributed to the networked computers, which display them as a [[screensaver]].

==Process==
The process is transparent to the casual user, who can simply install the software as a screensaver.  Alternatively, the user may become more involved with the project, manually creating a fractal flame file for upload to the server where it is rendered into a video file of the animated fractal flame.  As the screensaver entertains the user, their computer is also used for rendering commercial projects, sales of which keep the servers and developers running.

There are about 500,000 active users (monthly uniques).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.triangulationblog.com/2011/01/scott-draves.html|title=Scott Draves - TRIANGULATION|work=triangulationblog.com}}</ref>

According to Mitchell Whitelaw in his ''Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life'', "On the screen they are luminous, twisting, elastic shapes, abstract tangles and loops of glowing filaments."<ref>Mitchell Whitelaw (2004). ''Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life''.  MIT Press. pp 155.</ref>

The name "Electric Sheep" is taken from the title of [[Philip K. Dick]]'s novel ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]''.  The title mirrors the nature of the project: computers (androids) who have started running the screensaver begin rendering (dreaming) the fractal movies ([[Counting sheep|sheep]]).

The sheep motif is carried over into other aspects of the project: the 100 or so sheep stored on the server at any time is referred to as 'the flock'; creating a new fractal by interpolating or combining the sheep's fractal code with that of another sheep is called mating/breeding; changes to the code are called mutations, etc.

The parameters that generate these movies (sheep) can be created in a few ways: they can be created and submitted by members of the electricsheep mailing list, members of the mailing list can download the parameters of existing sheep and tweak them, or sheep can be mated together automatically by the server or manually by server admins (nicknamed shepherds).

Users may vote on sheep that they like or dislike, and this voting is used for the [[genetic algorithm]] which generates new sheep. Each movie is a [[fractal flame]] with several of its parameters [[Computer animation|animated]]. The individual frames of which these movies consist are rendered using 'spare' processing cycles from idle computers on the distributed network of those running the screensaver application, and finished sheep (in the form of .avi files) are distributed to the network.

The computer-generated sheep parameters and movies are distributed under the [[Creative Commons licenses|Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (CC-BY-NC) license]]; user-generated sheep parameters are under the [[Creative Commons licenses|Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Scott|first1=Draves|title=remix and reuse|url=https://gold.electricsheep.org/license/|website=electric sheep|access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref> Both are automatically downloaded by the screen saver. The underlying copyright issues raised by generative, distributed digital art projects involve novel legal issues that the current copyright system can not understand or handle.<ref name="JOLTDigest">{{cite web|last=Acosta |first=Raquel |url=http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/should-lawyers-dream-of-electric-sheep-digital-art-a-dynamic-misfit-in-a-static-system|title=Should Lawyers Dream of Electric Sheep? Digital Art: A Dynamic Misfit in a Static System|website=Jolt.Law.Harvard.com|date=22 September 2011|access-date=4 October 2017}}</ref>

The screensaver was created and released as [[free software]] by [[Scott Draves]] in 1999 and continues to be developed by him and a team of about five engineers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Draves |first=Scott |title=Applications of Evolutionary Computing |chapter=The Electric Sheep Screen-Saver: A Case Study in Aesthetic Evolution |date=2005 |editor-last=Rothlauf |editor-first=Franz |editor2-last=Branke |editor2-first=Jürgen |editor3-last=Cagnoni |editor3-first=Stefano |editor4-last=Corne |editor4-first=David Wolfe |editor5-last=Drechsler |editor5-first=Rolf |editor6-last=Jin |editor6-first=Yaochu |editor7-last=Machado |editor7-first=Penousal |editor8-last=Marchiori |editor8-first=Elena |editor9-last=Romero |editor9-first=Juan |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-32003-6_46 |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |volume=3449 |language=en |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |pages=458–467 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-32003-6_46 |isbn=978-3-540-32003-6|s2cid=14256872 }}</ref>

The 2.7.x series differs from the old versions. It has a new logo, higher quality sheep and other features. It has switched to a [[freemium]] model in which the server software is not available and much of the computed data is not available under a free license, which led to its removal from [[Debian]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bugs.debian.org/711284#23|access-date=22 April 2015|title=#711284 - RM: electricsheep -- RoQA; orphaned, RC-buggy, licence problems - Debian Bug report logs}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://bugs.debian.org/669356|access-date=22 April 2015|title=#669356 - electricsheep unsuitable for Debian main? - Debian Bug report log}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
* [[Evolutionary art]]
* [[List of volunteer computing projects]]
* [[Software art]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite conference|title=The Electric Sheep Screen-Saver: A Case Study in Aesthetic Evolution|format=PDF|first=Scott|last=Draves|author-link=Scott Draves|url=http://draves.org/evomusart05/|book-title=Applications of Evolutionary Computing, the proceedings of EvoMusArt05|conference=EvoMusArt05|conference-url=http://evonet.lri.fr/eurogp2005/?page=evomusart|date=March 31, 2005}}—Technical paper about the project.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Electric Sheep}}
* {{Official website}}
* {{github|scottdraves/electricsheep/|Project wiki, downloads, and source code}}

{{Fractal software}}
{{GNU}}
{{Fractals}}
{{Mathematics and art}}

[[Category:Computer art]]
[[Category:Volunteer computing projects]]
[[Category:Screensavers]]
[[Category:Fractal software]]
[[Category:Software using the GNU General Public License]]