 |
Electric Sheep Distributed Screen-Saver: Collective Computer Unconsious
The Electric Sheep Distributed Screen-Saver taps into the collective unconscious of sleeping computers all over the world. When your computer sleeps, does it dream of electric sheep?
(From Electric Sheep)
Once you have downloaded the screen saver client to your machine, it activates when your computer is idle ("sleeping"). Once every fifteen minutes a new sheep, an animated fractal flame, is downloaded to all sleeping computers. The screen of each computer becomes a window into a visual space shared by all users. The client computers render jpeg frames which are then uploaded to the server. When the frames are ready, the server compresses them into an mpeg animation; client computers download the finished "electric sheep", presenting them on the screen in dreamy contemplation.
The program was inspired in 1999 in part by the SETI@home project; the name derives from the well-known novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. In the story, humans have devastated their world; most animals are dead, and most genetically whole people have left the planet. Those who remain may purchase mechanical animals - like electric sheep - and care for them as if they were real. Artificial humans (androids) are created to mimic people in every way. Do androids also dream of having their own animals? The novel was the inspiration for the movie Bladerunner.
Another interesting sf connection - Robert Heinlein created the idea for the screen-saver in his famous novel Stranger in a Strange Land, published in 1961.
See the Explanation of the Electric Sheep Distributed Screen-Saver for details; see sample "electric sheep" on the sample page.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/16/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion (Back On) ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Computer ")
Fujitsu Touchscreen Mixes Real And Virtual Worlds
'His hands flashed over the keyboard - it had not been there a moment before, but it was operative...'- Frederik Pohl, 1965.
Nanowire Memristor Networks Form 'Brains'
'He had constructed ... a brain, of metal... whose atomic structure he claimed was analogous to the atomic structure of a living brain.'- Edmond Hamilton, 1926.
US Census Will Be Online In 2020
'Most would be in English, but some would be in Spanish, some in Amerind languages, some in Chinese...'- John Brunner, 1975.
Wireless Brain-Computer Interface
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE [a mainframe computer] what we wanted and she took care of it," Art said.'- Pournelle and Niven, 1981.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
German Firm Seeks To Recruit Autistics
Not a deficit, but a strength.
NASA Supports Pizza Printer
Is it extra with printed pepperoni?
Could Ground-Based Lasers De-Orbit Space Junk?
'Then their lasers vaporized the smaller satellites...'
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'
MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.
Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.
The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
Swiss HCPVT Giant Photovoltaic 'Flower'
'...leaning against one of the slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector.'
