Images: Web surfers dream up electric 'sheep'

Scott Draves' Electric Sheep project combines distributed computing, open-source software and a thumbs-up or thumbs-down ranking system with some heady psychedelic magic to generate a flock of colorful screensavers, or "sheep," that can be used (and created) by anyone online.

The project draws its power from users' computers and generates designs that survive on the basis of their popularity--the audience votes for their favorites, and, according to the project's Web site, "the more popular sheep live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and crossover. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience."

The Electric Sheep Web site also traces the genealogy of the "sheep": This page show three generations, including the two parents of a sheep, and the design's offspring.