Computer taking over your dreams?

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Computer taking over your dreams?

If you dream that your hard drive is crashing, do you wake up just before the Fatal System Error message appears? What would be the meaning of a dream about a cursor that was frozen, not flashing, on a blank screen? And in scrutinizing nightmares about computers, are there times when a hard drive is really just a hard drive?

As computers leach deeper into the subconscious, accounts of anxiety-filled dreams about them are showing up in the public spaces of the Internet and in off-line conversations. While "10,000 Dreams Interpreted" by Gustavus Hindman Miller, written in 1909, featured dream objects like absinthe, reapers and saltpeter, and current dream lexicons are filled with cars and airplanes, it may be that before long, control panels and File Not Found messages will be regularly showing up in the collective subconscious.



-- Scott (hma5_5@hotmail.com), January 28, 2000

Answers

First, re time and internal network processes to resolve (machine perceived conflict): http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- msg.tcl?msg_id=002S4D. Or maybe it doesn't like football.

Response to our thread here. I don't mind being a guinea pig, but I wish we'd get some more participants. I feel more like a voice in the wilderness than a forum member. Recently I was presented with a series of very pressing problems. I generally facilitate complex problem solving by exercising: succumbing to rythmic and repetitive physical motion and allowing "no" thought. Recently, in the twilight zone before REM, I've been "dreaming" of rapidly scrolling data on a computer screen. The scroll is too fast to allow conscious recognition of data display, except isolated information, but in the experience I am aware that what is being shown is important. Within 24 hours of this "fantasy" state,I am able to identify and implement a solution that is effective in initiating resolution of the issue (s). I'd like to see an EEG or MRI during the "scroll events" but have no intention of follwing through on this idea. I think it may be a mistake to narrow the focus of the thread to "anxiety" related "dreams". Computers may be teaching us an enhanced mode of expression that we can only tolerate on a "subconscious" level at this point. If I as an individual allowed myself to envision data screens in a conscious, problem solving paradigm I would feel ridiculous. Dream state allows, indeed demands, the unconventional. I also use the term "dream" in a very loose sense. I would not attribute my experience to REM states: I presume it is some sort of construct to make whatever process it represents palatable to the conscious, conservative Mike. By the way, "leach into the subconscious" sounds dreadful. Could we shoot for "enhanced interaction, recognition and acceptance of relevance..." or "as we learn more about...?"

-- mike in houston (mmorris67@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.


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