A homage, and a slow dream
ADdes is short for Androids Do Dream of Electric Sheep, said like “Gladys”.
A spiritual successor
ADdes is a spiritual successor to Electric Sheep, and a homage to Philip K. Dick and to Electric Sheep itself.
Electric Sheep was a screensaver whose luminous, twisting, elastic shapes evolved slowly and lulled people into a trance. The north star is to bring back the awe of watching it as a kid, with modern hardware, and make it shareable.
The name plays on Dick’s novel, in which androids might dream. Here, they do.
Smaller than it sounds, on purpose
- It is not a re-implementation of Electric Sheep, and it is not compatible with its genome files.
- There is no server, flock, voting or accounts.
- There is no composed music, just drones.
Five promises to itself
Desktop and VR, both
The desktop is where most people will meet ADdes, as a screensaver, an audio visualizer, or something beautiful on a TV. VR is where it goes furthest. A feature that only works in the headset needs a reason.
Yardsticks before code
Each phase’s measures are written before it is built, so they can’t be chosen to fit what got built. A number quoted is a number measured.
The Trance Budget holds
Intensity comes from colour, detail and depth, never from flashing, strobing or sudden motion. See the limits.
Comfort, honestly
Comfort is measured where it can be, and judged by you where it can’t. Defaults start gentle; controls let you go further.
Deterministic
Every experience is a pure function of its seed and clock, picture and sound alike.
Fully offline
It asks for nothing from the internet. The drone is made inside the program, and your music is analysed in-house.
Rust, and a graphics card
The program is written in Rust. The picture is drawn on the graphics card through wgpu on DX12. The drone is a pure-Rust synth. The headset is reached through OpenXR, and other apps’ audio is captured with WASAPI process loopback, which excludes ADdes itself.
About this website: the small dreams here are a re-creation that your own browser draws from a seed. They are not the program, and nothing about them is sent anywhere. The only things these pages ask the internet for are their two fonts.
Asked often enough to answer
Is ADdes a meditation app?
No. ADdes is not a meditation app, and it does not claim to be a meditation practice.
Meditation, as we understand it, is a quiet, focused moment of self-reflection, with expanded awareness as its goal. A light show is not that. People do come to ADdes for the mood: slow, soft and unhurried. That mood is the point of the Trance Budget. But if what you are looking for is meditation, here are two free, non-commercial places that explain what it is and what the research says:
- Mindfulness, from the NHS (UK National Health Service).
- Meditation and Mindfulness: Effectiveness and Safety, from the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
I am sensitive to flashing light. Is it safe?
Nothing in ADdes is allowed to flash, and the project holds itself to a stricter limit than the web standard for flashing. That is a design limit enforced by measurement, not medical advice. If you have photosensitive epilepsy, or any doubt, speak to your doctor first. The limits, and a live meter, are on the Calm page.
Does it need the internet?
No. It stays fully offline.
Does it listen to my music?
It can respond to it, gently. Other apps’ audio is captured with WASAPI process loopback that excludes ADdes itself, analysed in-house, and applied as slow, bounded tints. Music can make the dream breathe; it can never make it strobe. More on the Sound page.
Do I need a headset?
No. VR is optional, and the desktop gets equal attention. Most people will meet ADdes as a screensaver, an audio visualizer, or a piece on a TV. The headset side is on the VR page.
Can I share a dream?
Not yet. It is planned: a dream’s whole recipe is only a few kilobytes, small enough for a file, a link or a QR code. Today you can share pictures from inside it in the gallery.
How do I say the name?
Like “Gladys”. The capitals are the first letters of Androids Do; the rest is Dream of Electric Sheep, folded away.