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Alarm.

Sleep.

Dream.

Alarm.

Dream.

You are dreaming. You are dreaming that you are dreaming. You are dreaming that you woke up from a dream, hit the alarm, and went back to dreaming. It's a dream within a dream.

If that last sentence rings any bells then you have received  information that allows you to get more meaning from it than someone who has not seen the movie "Inception". Billy's blog post #4 gives us his insight into “how one sees information as giving a meaning”. The in-class demonstration of different waveforms shows how meaning can be relative. Providing someone with the information of a song, what it looks like as a waveform, is completely different than hearing the song. (unless of course you have the information to turn a waveform into a song in your head). By giving us insight to what the songs “mean”, we both look at the waveform and see different things. I saw the waveform of an unknown song. Dr. Edwards saw the waveform of a song he chose because he liked it and had fond memories of it. Sometimes there is more meaning to the message than you have information for.

Meaning can also be misinterpreted but because we can pair the information with context, we can usually understand the message.

This is the word ghoti. You know, the one that swims, tastes really good and looks like this ><>?

With the information and context that we use when reading, we read it as goaty or gotty. In order to aim for misinterpretation, this is the breakdown. The “gh” produces an “f” sound like in rough. The “o” produces an “ih” sound like in women. The “ti” produces a “sh” sound like in the word nation. All of these misinterpreted sounds combined produces the word fish after I have provided you with the information and context for this particular “word”.

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Alarm.

Off.

Dream.

Alarm.

Alarm.

Alarm.

You have become accustomed to the alarm. It no longer wakes you to consciousness. It becomes a part of your dream, implementing itself into the world around you. Sometimes it is a siren. Sometimes it enters your dream as a vehicle honking its horn, appearing out of thin air and nearly hitting you. This time you are alone in a vast emptiness. You do not know where you could be as there are no distinguishing features. There is no sand around you. There are no trees. There are no stars. Nothing. Silence. Absence. From a distance you can hear a sound. Anything that represents action is a welcome addition. You can't tell if you are getting closer to the source, if the source is getting closer to you, or if there is no source and it just is.

The information that a person receives in a dream can be related to many factors. It can be influenced emotions, thoughts, problems, troubles, noises, sleep aids, decisions, touch, movement and other stimuli, example, you could watch a scary movie and have a nightmare. No one can give a person a 100% correct interpretation of a dream and most attempts to do so are hearsay. I found a website dedicated to interpreting symbols and themes and decided to click on a list of interpretations for L. “To see the letter L in a dream is symbolic of a loser...” It may also signify “your fear of the 'l-word'”. The interpretation of symbols and themes in dreams at this depth is on the same level as horoscopes and fortune tellers. However, some symbols, like hearing an alarm, can only mean one thing. Get up.

Information is what creates meaning. Words are meaningful because we have been taught the information that “C” “a” and “t” spell cat and we know to combine these letters to create a sound, or combination of sounds, that convey meaning. Moving past the creation of the first language, for lack of cite-able evidence, to the use of drums to communicate over long distances. The messages that people would send using drums relied solely on the information they had. Both ends would have to know meaning associated with that song or rhythm. A person could be taught to do a specific pattern in order to send a message of “we need food”. If that person sending the message did not have the information to translate or associate it to/with meaning, they would not be ably to understand the other sides reply or send one of their own.

Binary Code is another example of information creating meaning. Binary is an extremely simple and important part of technology. The concept of absence/presence was a BCE invention which became the structure for computers, mechanical and electronic, to get to where they are today. Before watching the video in class, I had always thought binary was some complex computer language in which “0100011010100” meant potato. The 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. method of of calculating numbers was so simple I was able to learn it instantly. If I was given any number I would be able to translate it into binary and vice versa just by knowing the information that 0101 means that it has one “1”, no “2”, one “4” and no “8” equaling 5. This information, combined with simple math skills, creates meaning.

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You are dreaming. 

You have been rewarded with an immeasurable amount of dream time. 

In this dream you are flying. You are above the clouds and looking down giving you a whole new perspective.

 Instead of blue sky being the backdrop to the clouds, you see the Earth on the other side. The clouds are creating what seems like a never-ending pattern of structured design. You see what you think is the beginning of the pattern because everything looks to move away from this point.

 As you try to fly to the end, all of a sudden you are met with another pattern that has come out of nowhere. 

Alarm.

These patterns are called fractals and they are geometric objects that have two properties. “infinitely detailed and self-similar”. (Fractals in Nature). Mathematical fractals are generated by taking a set of inputs and applying them to an equation. The output of this equation is then fed into the same equation which provides a different set of inputs. These are then plotted on to the “graph” for defined or infinite amount of times. This process is called feedback. There are two kind of feedback as defined in Gleick. Positive feedback, like when the sound of a speaker is re-amplified through the mic and back out the speaker , can grow rapidly and spiral out of control. Negative feedback can guide a system towards equilibrium. (Gleick, 238). The manner in which the fractal equation operates allows for values that have been entered to not rapidly grow or diminish, but to maintain.

When fractal equations were first being studied and developed, the mathematicians did not realize the full potential. Just like with Babbage's Difference machine, the application of the technology was more than its original purpose. Babbage's machine went from a purely mathematical process machine to one that could write music. Fractals went from being observed in nature, to being a purely mathematical equation, to it being used in computer software and electronic efficiency  Trees have a similar fractal pattern to that of a Mandelbrot set which allows for the maximization of photosynthesis due to the rotation of the Earth. Solar panels created in the shape of a tree, instead of one big panel, generate more power.

Below is a fractal that I made from a fractal generator that I downloaded for free.

Fractal Source. Fractal Info

Inspect a Fractal. Fractal Generator

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You have just awoken from a long slumber. 

The alarm clock that should have been turned off, was not.

 The multiple alarms that are set to go off in 10 minute increments come to life like the squawking of a bird, a now extinct bird, whose extinction was in some part related to its call. 

Every time the alarm comes on you fight to extinguish it as fast as possible to return to your dreams. 

Every time you return to your dreams, it seems as if mere seconds have passed and you are back to battling the alarm. 

This battle is not for the simple pleasure of falling back asleep, but to continue your dream and hopefully see how it ends. 

When you think about it, you realize that dreams never have a definitive end. 

There is no fade to black and "The End" followed by credits. They end abruptly when you awake or they are forgotten in the next cycle of sleep. 

This dream has become something more than just an accompaniment to sleep.

Every moment you “wake” to turn off the alarm, everything is still hazy and dreamlike. 

You never truly wake so the dream continues as long as you book mark your place in the dream. 

This is the story of that dream.