5 ms·

I had a dream

166 points by gone35 4y ago

ohiovr 4y ago
I don't have this problem on Linux, I've made hundreds of office files that are nothing but nonsensical calculations.
avg_dev 4y ago
Haha, this is a great story. For quick reference, it has nothing to do with MLK.
- moffkalast 4y ago
  MLK got deleted by Powerpoint for attempting to trap the world in a logical paradox.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
skrebbel 4y ago
I hope the zoom meeting wasn’t about the Paradoxes
bawolff 4y ago
Reminds me of the story "Breeds there a man...?" by Asimov
- philipswood 4y ago
  Awesome story.
- bobmichael 4y ago
  Link to full text for the curious: https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v47n04_1951-06_Gorgon776/page/n73/mode/1up?view=theater https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v47n04_1951-06_Gorgon...
overlisted 4y ago
Is that what having schizophrenia is like?
- dsr_ 4y ago
  No. Having schizophrenia may result in you not being able to distinguish between reality and dreams when you are awake. While you are asleep, it's quite common to believe in your dreamscape. (It's also common to tell yourself that it's a dream.)
- anotherrandom 4y ago
  No, because with schizophrenia things that should have no salience whatsoever become very salient to you. I.e. scales all being rectangular (thus making the diet industry run by a bunch of Pythagorean rectangle-worshipping cultists) or something.
capableweb 4y ago
This regularly shows itself as being true: our bodies know more than our minds let us in on. Sometimes I just have just a feeling that something is wrong or something, while not being able to pinpoint exactly why or how. But wait a few minutes ignoring this bad feeling, and it turns out to be true. As I get older, I also find my body acting more and more for me. Have something important in the morning to do? I don't need to put the alarm anymore, I'll wake up by myself, not really knowing why until a couple of minutes later when I remember "Oh, I had this thing to do, good thing I woke up!". I think this is what happened in the authors case as well. His mind maybe didn't realize it at the time, that there could be timezone differences that were important, but his body did, so it did its best to steer him towards waking up on time just in case. And in this case, it turned out that his body knew better than his mind. Maybe this is what people mean when they talk about "gut feeling".
- jcynix 4y ago
  > As I get older, I also find my body acting more and more for me. Maybe your theory of "me" is a bit off from reality? I think Marvin Minsky's book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind is a highly interesting (and mostly ignored) theory (or model) of the mind as a group of agents where each agent tries to reach consciousness. Those that don't reach consciousness (your "mind") are your gut feelings.
- seqizz 4y ago
  This kinda sounds like survivorship bias though. You probably had that feeling _at least_ as many times and something bad didn't happen afterwards. But these moments are not the ones which our mind would like to keep as relevant.
  - mandmandam 4y ago
    I'm certain this is real. Survivorship bias exists, but so does gut instinct. Our brains do far more work behind the scenes than we generally give them credit for. Think of the (admittedly rare) people who get a bump on the head, and can suddenly do savant math, or play piano like a master - that potential was always there. Think of the many examples from the history of science, where the answer came in a dream, or even a daydream. Waking up in time for a known appointment is not that remarkable, when considered with the fact we have a very sophisticated set of internal clocks, and that dreams often concern future events that we are anticipating or anxious about. I have countless similar examples from my own life, which could easily be dismissed as anecdata. They're more than good enough for me - I'd be a fool to ignore them. Truly, I believe that most people just don't pay attention to the hints their mind gives them. Many are tired, distracted, and untrained; overworked and stressed to the gills. If you are one of those people, I can see why you would think that gut instinct is a myth. But it surely isn't, I guarantee it. The next time you get a line from a song stuck in your head, ask yourself if there's any relevance to your life situation - more often than not, your brain is trying to tell you something.
nyoomboom 4y ago
I had a dream like this many years ago, but it was Beyonce yelling at me to leave the house quickly to avoid getting late for work. When I woke up I only had time to leave the house.
quickthrower2 4y ago
Hmm. Was that code for a quantum or classical computer? But yeah that dream makes a great short story. An exception to the general rule that telling people your dream is boring.
em1sar 4y ago
[flagged]
leephillips 4y ago
I hope he pays attention to the real warning the dream was trying to send him: use Beamer, not Powerpoint. That way lies salvation.
superb-owl 4y ago
There's a bit of a taboo on sharing dreams, but I'm fascinated by other people's stories. I'm particularly excited to see someone as brilliant as Scott sharing his.
shishy 4y ago
The number of times I've had a dream wake me up in time for something is astonishing. Before I go to bed, if I tell myself "wake up at 7AM wake up at 7AM wake up at 7AM" I naturally get up within a few seconds of 7AM, almost always because I have a dream towards the end of sleep that forces me to wake up (they are not always relevant but they force me to get up at the right time) Crazy
midwestfounder 4y ago
Reminiscent of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson; any chance you have read that book recently? If so, there is additional comedy in the fact that, perhaps, Stephenson's meme reappeared in your dream.
jameal 4y ago
I recently finished up a leadership coaching training program of which a significant component was working with our dreams. Our instructor held that our dreams are a reflection of waking life, and vice-versa. That by becoming aware of and interacting with the images in our dreams we can learn about ourselves. She showed us a process for "opening up" our night dreams. By writing them down, identifying patterns, and then looking for deeper meaning. Not through a fixed interpretation of symbols but something more fluid. We opened up a few of our night dreams as a group, including a couple of my own, and I was floored by how powerful and revealing the process was. We learned to use the same process for opening up situations in our waking lives too. I was incredibly skeptical at first but now I'm sure there is much more to our dreams than we give them credit for. I remember reading once that for many ancient cultures, dreams played a significant role. At some point, probably during the Age of Enlightenment, we discarded them as frivolous.

I had a dream

166 points by gone35 4y ago

ohiovr 4y ago

I don't have this problem on Linux, I've made hundreds of office files that are nothing but nonsensical calculations.

avg_dev 4y ago

Haha, this is a great story. For quick reference, it has nothing to do with MLK.

moffkalast 4y ago
MLK got deleted by Powerpoint for attempting to trap the world in a logical paradox.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

skrebbel 4y ago

I hope the zoom meeting wasn’t about the Paradoxes

bawolff 4y ago

Reminds me of the story "Breeds there a man...?" by Asimov

philipswood 4y ago
Awesome story.
bobmichael 4y ago
Link to full text for the curious: https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v47n04_1951-06_Gorgon776/page/n73/mode/1up?view=theater https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v47n04_1951-06_Gorgon...

overlisted 4y ago

Is that what having schizophrenia is like?

dsr_ 4y ago
No. Having schizophrenia may result in you not being able to distinguish between reality and dreams when you are awake. While you are asleep, it's quite common to believe in your dreamscape. (It's also common to tell yourself that it's a dream.)
anotherrandom 4y ago
No, because with schizophrenia things that should have no salience whatsoever become very salient to you. I.e. scales all being rectangular (thus making the diet industry run by a bunch of Pythagorean rectangle-worshipping cultists) or something.

capableweb 4y ago

This regularly shows itself as being true: our bodies know more than our minds let us in on. Sometimes I just have just a feeling that something is wrong or something, while not being able to pinpoint exactly why or how. But wait a few minutes ignoring this bad feeling, and it turns out to be true. As I get older, I also find my body acting more and more for me. Have something important in the morning to do? I don't need to put the alarm anymore, I'll wake up by myself, not really knowing why until a couple of minutes later when I remember "Oh, I had this thing to do, good thing I woke up!". I think this is what happened in the authors case as well. His mind maybe didn't realize it at the time, that there could be timezone differences that were important, but his body did, so it did its best to steer him towards waking up on time just in case. And in this case, it turned out that his body knew better than his mind. Maybe this is what people mean when they talk about "gut feeling".

jcynix 4y ago
> As I get older, I also find my body acting more and more for me. Maybe your theory of "me" is a bit off from reality? I think Marvin Minsky's book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind is a highly interesting (and mostly ignored) theory (or model) of the mind as a group of agents where each agent tries to reach consciousness. Those that don't reach consciousness (your "mind") are your gut feelings.
seqizz 4y ago
This kinda sounds like survivorship bias though. You probably had that feeling _at least_ as many times and something bad didn't happen afterwards. But these moments are not the ones which our mind would like to keep as relevant.
- mandmandam 4y ago
  I'm certain this is real. Survivorship bias exists, but so does gut instinct. Our brains do far more work behind the scenes than we generally give them credit for. Think of the (admittedly rare) people who get a bump on the head, and can suddenly do savant math, or play piano like a master - that potential was always there. Think of the many examples from the history of science, where the answer came in a dream, or even a daydream. Waking up in time for a known appointment is not that remarkable, when considered with the fact we have a very sophisticated set of internal clocks, and that dreams often concern future events that we are anticipating or anxious about. I have countless similar examples from my own life, which could easily be dismissed as anecdata. They're more than good enough for me - I'd be a fool to ignore them. Truly, I believe that most people just don't pay attention to the hints their mind gives them. Many are tired, distracted, and untrained; overworked and stressed to the gills. If you are one of those people, I can see why you would think that gut instinct is a myth. But it surely isn't, I guarantee it. The next time you get a line from a song stuck in your head, ask yourself if there's any relevance to your life situation - more often than not, your brain is trying to tell you something.

nyoomboom 4y ago

I had a dream like this many years ago, but it was Beyonce yelling at me to leave the house quickly to avoid getting late for work. When I woke up I only had time to leave the house.

quickthrower2 4y ago

Hmm. Was that code for a quantum or classical computer? But yeah that dream makes a great short story. An exception to the general rule that telling people your dream is boring.

em1sar 4y ago

[flagged]

leephillips 4y ago

I hope he pays attention to the real warning the dream was trying to send him: use Beamer, not Powerpoint. That way lies salvation.

superb-owl 4y ago

There's a bit of a taboo on sharing dreams, but I'm fascinated by other people's stories. I'm particularly excited to see someone as brilliant as Scott sharing his.

shishy 4y ago

The number of times I've had a dream wake me up in time for something is astonishing. Before I go to bed, if I tell myself "wake up at 7AM wake up at 7AM wake up at 7AM" I naturally get up within a few seconds of 7AM, almost always because I have a dream towards the end of sleep that forces me to wake up (they are not always relevant but they force me to get up at the right time) Crazy

midwestfounder 4y ago

Reminiscent of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson; any chance you have read that book recently? If so, there is additional comedy in the fact that, perhaps, Stephenson's meme reappeared in your dream.

jameal 4y ago

I recently finished up a leadership coaching training program of which a significant component was working with our dreams. Our instructor held that our dreams are a reflection of waking life, and vice-versa. That by becoming aware of and interacting with the images in our dreams we can learn about ourselves. She showed us a process for "opening up" our night dreams. By writing them down, identifying patterns, and then looking for deeper meaning. Not through a fixed interpretation of symbols but something more fluid. We opened up a few of our night dreams as a group, including a couple of my own, and I was floored by how powerful and revealing the process was. We learned to use the same process for opening up situations in our waking lives too. I was incredibly skeptical at first but now I'm sure there is much more to our dreams than we give them credit for. I remember reading once that for many ancient cultures, dreams played a significant role. At some point, probably during the Age of Enlightenment, we discarded them as frivolous.