Deep Thoughts

[Sureboss]

Haha, indeed... that brings up a rather interesting (fascinating/weird/scary?) thought, which is this - imagine a super-advanced technological society inhabits a planet near a star in the Andromeda (M31) galaxy, 2.52 million light years from Earth. They have long been able to detect and observe civilisations on other planets, and Earth happens to be one such (rare) example in their neighbouring galaxy, of which they can get particularly good views (especially on a clear night!). But their telescopes are amazingly powerful, and their spying/reconnaissance skills are so advanced that they can effectively "watch" us going about our daily lives, as if browsing a real-time version of Google Earth. It is such high resolution that they can track individuals and you happen to be one of their favourite subjects and even have something of a cult following there... (OK, now we're stretching the imagination a tad, but bear with me!) - but here's the kicker. You don't have a cult following there right now, but in 2.52 million years from now, when they are able to see you "live". In other words, what we do now could (in theory anyway) be watched by alien observers for (again, in theory anyway) billions of years to come. What's more, they aren't merely seeing a "playback", an echo, or a facsimilie of you, but would actually be watching you "as live", albeit with a tremendous delay. So, although the chances that someone is watching you right now are incredibly low, the chances will get higher and higher as time progresses.

And ladies and gentlemen, this is why the theoretical physics community is to blame for high dope prices.

Incredible thought, mind

 

[91hondawagon]

Thanks, TM, for recapping an entire semester's worth of my Intro to Astronomy class in only 4 posts .

 

[Soundtrack]

It makes it mind-blowing we can actually enjoy a sky full of stars (especially on a clear night!), in our pretty short 24H cycle’s reference to time. This lead to my next novice question; how do we correct (due to the multiple delays introduced by the different distances involved) the obviously geometrically biased image we perceive of the sky to map the universe correctly?

 

[Omnis]

Haha, indeed... that brings up a rather interesting (fascinating/weird/scary?) thought, which is this - imagine a super-advanced technological society inhabits a planet near a star in the Andromeda (M31) galaxy, 2.52 million light years from Earth. They have long been able to detect and observe civilisations on other planets, and Earth happens to be one such (rare) example in their neighbouring galaxy, of which they can get particularly good views (especially on a clear night!). But their telescopes are amazingly powerful, and their spying/reconnaissance skills are so advanced that they can effectively "watch" us going about our daily lives, as if browsing a real-time version of Google Earth. It is such high resolution that they can track individuals and you happen to be one of their favourite subjects and even have something of a cult following there... (OK, now we're stretching the imagination a tad, but bear with me!) - but here's the kicker. You don't have a cult following there right now, but in 2.52 million years from now, when they are able to see you "live". In other words, what we do now could (in theory anyway) be watched by alien observers for (again, in theory anyway) billions of years to come. What's more, they aren't merely seeing a "playback", an echo, or a facsimilie of you, but would actually be watching you "as live", albeit with a tremendous delay. So, although the chances that someone is watching you right now are incredibly low, the chances will get higher and higher as time progresses.

"Why do the blue planet organisms sit in front of a glowing box all day?"

So I'm guessing a big question for physicists now is how to exceed the speed of light while retaining the properties of the accelerated matter. Does Star Trek take place in only a single galaxy? I know Star Wars does, and perhaps for good reason.

 

[Submerged]

I got to say, how did the "speed of light" actually get measured? And when one is said to have travelled at the speed of one light year to a point and then turns back to Earth to travel another light year (therefore making two light-years distance) , it is commonly said that the person who is travelling, would be younger than he left? Even though he/she/it been gone for technically two years (as I understand it).

 

[Grand Prix]

My film editing instructor brought up this rather interesting question recently:

When most people dream, they have "head movies", with a bunch of scenes put together like an editor would put together a film. The question is, do we dream this way because of the influence of film, or are films edited because that is how we dream?

If we dream the way we do because of film, does that mean then that people back in the 18th century, dreamed a continuous, steady cam, point-of-view shot of the "story" in their head?

Or, do we accept the "jumping" of images from one scene to the next in a film because it is completely normal to us, because that is the way we dream anyway?

 

[Sureboss]

Or he is spouting utter nonsense. Either way.

 

[Grand Prix]

Or he is spouting utter nonsense. Either way.

👍 Could be.

It'd be interesting to ask someone who has never seen a TV, how they dream though.

How do people on GTPlanet dream anyway?

 

[bergauk]

I dream movie style. Completely random but seeming to be shot over a period of time. I wish I could have my dreams turned into film. That'd be fairly interesting.

 

[Touring Mars]

I dream "Matrix Part 3" style - looks OK, no idea what the heck it means, and very unlikely to ever see it again.

 

[TB]

^

I honestly can't remember the last time I had a dream.

 

[Sureboss]

If you have a dream you're brain hasn't had enough work the day before, I never dream now, as I never go to bed without wanting to hit the sheets asap. Over-active brains and all that.

 

[Danoff]

If you have a dream you're brain hasn't had enough work the day before, I never dream now, as I never go to bed without wanting to hit the sheets asap. Over-active brains and all that.

Often I dream the most when I'm working the hardest - usually about the thing I'm working on. If I spend 20 hours straight at work banging my head on a particular problem, odds are about 99% that I'll dream about that problem all night.

That being said, I think movies and dreams both stem from the same source - the fact that human beings think in terms of events rather than linearly.

 

[Grand Prix]

Often I dream the most when I'm working the hardest - usually about the thing I'm working on. If I spend 20 hours straight at work banging my head on a particular problem, odds are about 99% that I'll dream about that problem all night.

That being said, I think movies and dreams both stem from the same source - the fact that human beings think in terms of events rather than linearly.

That makes sense.

 

[Metar]

Often I dream the most when I'm working the hardest - usually about the thing I'm working on. If I spend 20 hours straight at work banging my head on a particular problem, odds are about 99% that I'll dream about that problem all night.

I have the same. When I work on something for a day, it quite often appears - often in a bizarre, twisted way - in my dreams. I recall a project on TSPs that ended up spawning a dream with Salespersons offering suitcases full of ants.

I dream "Matrix Part 3" style - looks OK, no idea what the heck it means, and very unlikely to ever see it again.

Speaking of The Matrix and dreams - I sometimes gain this odd "Hang on, this is a dream!" moments where something breaks out of the "usual" rules. I had an instance where I was walking with a friend, and bumped into myself, talking with another friend. Suddenly I realized this is what it is, and the in-dream selfs both said "Wait, this isn't real!", and the whole thing vanished. Though I would like to be able to truly watch and remember my dreams - perhaps even with a way to convey it to others. Just not this way.

 

[rollazn]

If you have a dream you're brain hasn't had enough work the day before, I never dream now, as I never go to bed without wanting to hit the sheets asap. Over-active brains and all that.

I hope you know that on average a person have 3-5 dreams per night. During a full 8-hour night sleep, on average about two hours of it is spent dreaming. A person moves through the four stages of the sleep cycle throughout the night. In the final stage of the sleep cycle (referred to as REM sleep) is where dreaming occurs.

Everybody dreams. This is a scientifically proven fact. Research has shown that all human beings in a study showed brain activity during their sleep. Just because you cannot remember your dreams does not mean that you do not dream.

So why is it that some people don't remember their dream? This may be attributed to alcohol consumption, certain antibiotics, fever, lack of sleep, high levels of stress, and/or unconscious fears about the content of your dreams. Some researchers believe that certain people have a genetic disposition to forget their dreams as they come out of their sleep.


source: http://www.dreammoods.com/reference/faq.htm#dreamtime

 

[Lucas]

My dreams usually involve me in an especific place that I can identify rather easily, but that "morphs" as I walk through it. Dreams I recall having are me walking in the dinner room (completely different when it comes to styling as it is now), but feeling completely comfortable with it, as if I knew it from my whole life. Once I dreamt my dog had two heads, and I cut one of them She kept barking after it. Creepy, I know

I find it interesting how in my dreams I'm completely familiar with everything that surrounds me, and everything makes perfect sense. But when I awake, I think "How could that be/happen/work?". It's something I am very interested in.

 

[Grand Prix]

I noticed that I dream of myself in the third person (outside the body), rather than through the eyes. Anyone else do this? I wonder if this is related to film making as well.

 

[Lucas]

Me too. Sometimes is actually a mix of the two. I see the dream through my eyes, then the point of view changes to third person.

 

[Sureboss]

I must bring down that dream average, then.

 

[Philly]

So why is it that some people don't remember their dream? This may be attributed to alcohol consumption, certain antibiotics, fever, lack of sleep, high levels of stress, and/or unconscious fears about the content of your dreams. Some researchers believe that certain people have a genetic disposition to forget their dreams as they come out of their sleep.

Personally, I really only remember the dreams that I get woken up in the middle of. Most mornings I just wake up and go about my day without even noticing that I had had dreams the night before. But when something wakes me up, that dream almost suddenly turns into a daydream as I sit there trying to work out what was going on.

 

[Famine]

I must bring down that dream average, then.

For anyone sharing a room with you, apparently.

 

[Sureboss]

*cough* *cough*

 

[Omnis]

I dream in POV/FPS mode. Most of the ones I vividly remember are where I die in them, like that one time in the Mitsubishi Fuso. I wouldn't say it's movie-like. It's more like a rough cut of a film before it starts being edited. Everything is like stream of consciousness, and then maybe I'll blackout and change scenes for a new stream. I don't have 3rd person dreams unless I die. But I usually wake up before anything happens while I'm looking at myself and how I got killed, like that one time someone sent a ninja assassin after me, and he was flipping around on the front porch of Roadhouse Grill throwing knives into me, where I would black out and then zoom out to look at my stegosaurus-looking self before waking up because I had died.

 

[rollazn]

I must bring down that dream average, then.

Sure thing boss!

 

[Danoff]

I've got a suggestions for a new (more intelligent form) of l33t sp34k. How about using greek symbols?

You β reconize!
I can't believe I η whole watermelon.
Bussa κnisass.
Listening to my μsic
νb
ξ what I mean?
φble
ψience rules!
Ω! WTF!

For the uninitiated:

Spoiler

- Beta
- Eta
- Kappa
- Mu
- Nu
- Xi
- Phi
- Psi
- Omega

 

[Kneedragger]

People dont remember falling asleep either, as a rule.

On the surface, falling asleep seems trickier than dream recall. We wake up from sleep due to promptings that originate deep within the unconscious, like it or not (?!) While the act of falling asleep usually involves some degree of conscious decision to let it all go. And by 'all' I mean what we think of as ourself.

The analogy between sleep and death is an old one (my favorite example is 'dirt nap') ..but actually falling asleep, the act of doing that, is quite mysterious. On one level, falling asleep is a slap in the face to the ego, who must relinquish control at that point. Like it or not. The ego does not have to be aware of dreams though, and can ignore them or even deny they really exist. And yet to most egos the idea of dying during sleep seems attractive. Go figure.

Dreams themselves, as we know them, are the tip of the iceberg of something far greater. What WE think of as the dream state never actually 'stops happening' ..it is we, who leave it (we never actually leave the dream state. But we indeed turn our attention and focus away from it, for a time, so that we can have these experiences.

In the words of Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones, '..crazy' (snaps fingers)

 

[TB]

Bussa κnisass.

 

[Roo]

I've got a suggestions for a new (more intelligent form) of l33t sp34k. How about using greek symbols?

Would you start a resturant with the same motto as the Unseen University (η β π)?

 

[Nicknamealguem]

People dont remember falling asleep either, as a rule.

On the surface, falling asleep seems trickier than dream recall. We wake up from sleep due to promptings that originate deep within the unconscious, like it or not (?!) While the act of falling asleep usually involves some degree of conscious decision to let it all go. And by 'all' I mean what we think of as ourself.

The analogy between sleep and death is an old one (my favorite example is 'dirt nap') ..but actually falling asleep, the act of doing that, is quite mysterious. On one level, falling asleep is a slap in the face to the ego, who must relinquish control at that point. Like it or not. The ego does not have to be aware of dreams though, and can ignore them or even deny they really exist. And yet to most egos the idea of dying during sleep seems attractive. Go figure.

Dreams themselves, as we know them, are the tip of the iceberg of something far greater. What WE think of as the dream state never actually 'stops happening' ..it is we, who leave it (we never actually leave the dream state. But we indeed turn our attention and focus away from it, for a time, so that we can have these experiences.

In the words of Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones, '..crazy' (snaps fingers)

I remember feeling the almost falling asleep before, and I remember quite clearly that I didn’t want it; it felt like I was fading away, like I was dying somehow. Every time I feel that, I just wake up, it is just too much.

Also, I’ve seem to manage to take control of some of my dreams. I remember, one, where I was being chased, and there was a cliff up ahead. I was really scared, with nowhere to run, I was almost to wake up, but then I realized, hey, it’s my dream, I can do whatever I want; and started to fly, and escaped those who were chasing me.

How weird is that?