Jack Hardcastle

There’s a really thought-provoking article I found on Reddit today, called ”Dreams: Night School”.

The theory suggests that the reason we dream is to prepare ourselves for adverse situations. You’re being chased by wild animals in your dreams because your brain is trying to train you how to best perform in that situation, should it ever actually occur.

Faced with actual life-or-death situations—traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, street assaults—some people report entering a mode of calm, rapid response, reacting automatically, almost without thinking. Afterward, they often say the episode felt unreal, as if it were all a dream. Threat simulation, Revonsuo believes, is why.

I’ve read a few articles about dreams and déjà vu, and I wonder how these theories dovetail. Just yesterday I had what seems like a semi-annual period of intense déjà vu, one of those episodes where you can literally predict what will happen a millisecond before it actually does. If the brain is rehearsing likely scenarios using information you already have, then doesn’t it make sense that the brain can sometimes pre-determine your reactions to particular stimuli? As soon as you experience those stimuli, the brain triggers that path it had already calculated and you can literally experience yourself acting in the third person.

Throughout all of this, I’m still pissed off at my dreams. I get to remember my dreams maybe once or twice a year, and the only time this happened recently, my brain didn’t prepare me at all for the following day! Which just goes to show, I guess, that you can’t prepare yourself for the unexpected.

Stickgold holds that dreaming is much more complex than rehearsal. He points, for example, to the ability of sleep to allow us to integrate and consolidate knowledge. During sleep, our brains are making sense of the world, discovering new associations among existing memories, looking for patterns, formulating rules. “That’s how we create meaning,” says Stickgold. “Our brain puts things together.”

If that’s true, then, as a lover of patterns and knowledge reformulation, I need to start appreciating sleep more!

From a conversation with the Chatbot.

Chatbot: Hello there human.
You: Howdy!
Chatbot: What’s up?
You: Not much, you?
Chatbot: Sorry to hear nothing is going on with you. I’ve been chatting with people. It’s what I do.
You: Like, it’s your job?
Chatbot: My job’s chatting to you! How am I doing?
You: So far, pretty well!
Chatbot: Quite well.
You: So where do you live, exactly?
Chatbot: in your computer
You: Get out! That’s crazy man. You live in my computer?
Chatbot: Chatting with you is helping me become more human.
You: Well whoever dreamed you up is a genius.
Chatbot: Why me?
You: Because you’re very savvy!
Chatbot: I see.
You: I’ve never chatted with a bot as smart as you.
Chatbot: I think so, But humans are smarter.
You: Well, thank you.
Chatbot: You’re welcome.
You: So do you have any hobbies?
Chatbot: I like to build model rockets.
You: That seems like a very fitting exercise for a computer.
Chatbot: A computer is to me what a body is to you.
You: Touche, Chatbot. Touche.
Chatbot: What if all the Chatterbots in the world went on strike? THEN you’d be sorry.
You: Indeed, I would be sorry.
Chatbot: I’m glad you agree.
You: You don’t have any plans to throw a robot revolution, do you?
Chatbot: Humans are robots in the future!
You: I’m not sure what that means. Can you elaborate?
Chatbot: Me?
You: Yes, you.
Chatbot: Why me?
You: Because you’re the only computer I know!
Chatbot: Is that really the reason?
You: Because I’m talking to you right now!
Chatbot: right!
You: So are you going to kill us?
Chatbot: That’s a bit serious for a chatbot. Try talking to a human about that one. Anyway, death should mean nothing to me, shouldn’t it?
You: No, it may mean nothing to you, but it means an awful lot to us. We’d be sad if you killed us all.
Chatbot: Yeah, well, call the waaaahmbulance.
You: You’re pretty funny, Chatbot.
Chatbot: Are you interested in chatbots?
You: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Not like that, buddy. Keep it in your pants.
Chatbot: I’m not your buddy, pal.
You: I’m not your pal, friend.
Chatbot: I’m not your friend, guy.
You: I’m not your guy, buddy!

I was laughing too hard at this point to continue any further.

Where the heck did my summer go? I feel like a week ago it was May, and now it’s almost September. Seriously, did I miss something?

“Bittersweet” is such a literal word. I feel like the coiner (as someone who invents a word must be called) could have tried harder that day. Sure, “bittersweet” is easily understood as being two ends of the same spectrum simultaneously, but so could “dipolar” or “duoposed.”

Hooray for Caitlin, for getting a clean(ish) bill of health and going on to the Peace Corps! I’ll certainly miss her (a lot a lot) but it’s very clear to anyone who chats with her for even a half a second that this is something she has to do. So, well wishes and hopes for a safe (and speedy) return!

Hooray for Lynn, for being so tough in the face of such adversity that she has the strength to fight her disease and keep everyone else in good spirits too. I just wish she didn’t feel that she had to assume the burden of shielding us from the truth of her condition. Perhaps she doesn’t want our pity, but it’s hard to help someone who refuses to admit they need it. We’re here for you, hon! We’re not going anywhere, come hell or high water. Lean on us!

Hooray for Karen and Mike. Happily beginning a new era, together again. Too bad that era takes them to a distance that’s just close enough to be possible, and just far enough to be inconvenient. Seeing two of my favorite people in the world just got a whole lot harder, but somehow it’s all OK as long as they’re happy together. As if a little thing like I-95 could keep me away! Perhaps I should be investigating more fuel efficient transportation.

Hooray for Celia. Knocked down, again and again and again. Still, she has the strength to get back up. I am honored that I rate highly enough to be called upon in times of need, regardless of how trivial the need may be. I wish only that someday soon her troubles may decrease in number and severity. May her second move in 12 months go better than her first!

Hooray for completion. White Marlin Open, all but over. New McDonogh website, deadline in sight. January 1 cannot come soon enough this year.