CAN THE COMPUTER KILL YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS AND DREAMS? 

Greetings from the Colorado calm before the storm. It's going to be a long, snowy winter. I can feel it in my bones, especially the eight which I've broken over the years. The titanium plates in my leg are accurate barometers, and they forecast snow. What else is in the forecast? Today I predict a look at dreams, epiphanies and fascination.

(But before I continue on to that... I want to once again extend my most gracious thanks to the Mindsay staff for augmenting the text-editing window. It is 3x larger now, making for ocular-ergonomics.)

Yesterday I posted an example of an experiment using voice recognition software. Using Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 I read off a paragraph to illustrate both the accuracy and speed of this program. It is great for dictation and even better for stream of consciousness writning.

The Science-fiction writer Richard Powers wrote most of his book The Echo Maker using voice-recognition to dictate. "I've always wanted to have the freedom to be disembodied when I'm writng", says Powers, "To feel as feel as if I'm in a pure compostiional state."

This "compositional state" Powers refers to is a wonderland many an artist and scientist seek for elucidation or epiphany. Watson and Crick below

 were stumped on how to explain the complexity of DNA until Crick saw the double-helix solution in a dream. He called the process the "Royal road to the subconcsious".

Buckminster Fuller followed a similar path in discovering the structure of his famous Geodesic Dome. In the thick of an extended period of isolation following the death of his son, he was observing the formation of bubbles along the shoreline. He mused that while Pi, as a number is infinite, nature did not hesitate to create perfect bubbles.

All these men were/are fascinated with life. They never lost their childlike ability to allow their minds to wander. Somehow they escaped the common biblical  curse of "through the glass darkly." That is a precious and rare quality in adults today.

These machines we use and have attached ourselves to do not, I believe, possess the ability to lead us to any epiphany. They are too "hot" in the Marshall McLuhan sense. Their demand on the consciousness is constant and I propose that prolonged and consistent exposure to it kills the subconscious. In short, spending too much time in front of the computer robs you of your dream and imagination potential.

(Don't get me wrong, I love this technology, but if I didn't step away to read, play music, garden, cook and play, John Waters would want me to play the lead in his next movie.)

So, if you are accepting to the epiphany/subconscious/dream process, but disagree with my proposal of the "PC as dreamkiller", then I would ask this:

Give me one example of a major breakthrough or discovery in the last twenty years which resulted from a PC reliant person having a dream-epiphany. Or...

Give me one example of any machine or technology throughout history which in and of itself has been the source of an epiphany.

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Dream a Little Dream of Me - Diana Krall

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  Fascination is a precious gem.

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Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups vanilla low-fat frozen yogurt

1 1/4 cups orange juice

1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt

Directions:

1. Combine the frozen yogurt, orange juice and plain yogurt in a blender and puree until smooth.

2. Transfer the mixture into a glass measuring cup and then pour the mixture into the popsicle molds.

3. Snap the lids on the molds into place and insert a wooden popsicle stick through the opening in each lid.

4. Freeze overnight. (These can be made in advance and stored in the freezer.)

5. To unmold, unsnap the lid and gently squeeze the bottom and sides of the mold with one hand, while pulling the stick with the other. If the pops don't come out easily, run the molds under warm water for 5 seconds and then remove the pops.

If anyone is a Tolkien fan I have a link to download the man himself reading and Singing his Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers/The Return of the King. HERE

Consideration of content modification to include daily entries of:

   1. Image  (photo. graphic or video)

   2. Recipe  (gotta eat)

   3. Tech      (I can't resist)

   4. Links     (stuff I've found)

   5. Errs       (compulsive scrutiny)

Pablo

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