Monday, February 18, 2013

♦♦♦♦♦

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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