Electric Sheep

If you are looking for a unique way to enhance your desktop, then the Electric Sheep screensaver could be an option to consider. The tool consists of an original concept, namely that it is created by thousands of users from all across the globe whose computers can communicate via the app's server.

It is important to note that Electric Sheep comes to life when the screensaver is activated. Then the screen goes black and an animated 'sheep' appears. Behind the scenes, the screen-saver contacts a server and joins the parallel computation of new sheep. Every fifteen minutes 24/7 a new sheep is born and distributed to all clients for display. Each sheep is an animated fractal flame.

Each sheep is about 4 seconds long. Its shape, motion, and color are specified by a genetic code, a long string of numbers. If you see a sheep they like, they you can press the up arrow key to vote for the sheep. Sheep that receive more votes live longer and are more likely to reproduce.

These votes form a fitness function for the esthetic evolution of the flock. You can also download software to manually design genomes and post them to the server where they join the flock.