March 04, 2008
Electric Sheep Covered by Discover
The Electric Sheep was recommended by Discover Magazine in their survey of distributed computing. They had this to say:
What it is: If Darwin returned as an artist with a knack for computer science, he might be Scott “Spot” Draves, creator of Electric Sheep, a collective of computers that renders artwork. Animations, or “sheep,” evolve into high-definition abstract paintings, spawning off in random mutations. But it’s more science than you’d expect. “I want people to see the power of evolution,” Draves says. “I'd like people to accept evolution and randomness as the ultimate creative force in our universe.”How it works: The program creates sheep whose color, shape, and motion are specified by a "genetic code." If a user sees a sheep he likes, she may vote for it. Sheep that receive more votes live longer and are more likely to reproduce.
Our take: Must scientists get all the distributed-computing love? Perhaps not.
They first covered the Sheep in the
August 2004 issue.
Posted by spot at March 4, 2008 02:51 PM
Comments
That's some really nice coverage, Spot! You should work on your beard though, if you really want the Darwin thing to stick. ;-)
Posted by: Cassidy at March 4, 2008 09:28 PM
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