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Seeing code in dreams

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:15 pm
by jolinar
One of the, almost, urban-legends in programming circles seems to be seeing programming syntax in dreams, folowing long programming runs. I've never actually experienced this before although I know one or two people who've claimed to (and the confused flatmate who heard one of the aforementioned programmers talking in brackets and operator signs in their sleep)

I was wondering if anybody has experienced this before?

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:24 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I have. And I think there was a thread about this posted once or twice before. Or I could be dreaming. But seriously, I have had the 'dreaming in code' experience.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:08 pm
by feyd
80+% of my dreams are in code. Similar to the Matrix encoding, although not green and the actual encoding is a bit different.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:12 pm
by Luke
^I don't think he's joking! 8O

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:21 pm
by feyd
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:^I don't think he's joking! 8O
Nope, not a joke.

There are times when I get visual hints of electromagnetic waves too. It looks like a technicolor rainbow. I'm one of the "lucky" few who has extended yellow band receptors. This isn't a joke either.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:29 pm
by Luke
feyd wrote:I'm one of the "lucky" few who has extended yellow band receptors.
I'm one of the lucky few who has an extended you-know -what.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:49 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I can't imagine what your ear lobes have anything to do with this thread Ninja.

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:53 pm
by MrPotatoes
i dream in code alot. sometimes it actually helps and i get something done that i couldn't get done the night before :D

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:55 pm
by Obadiah
no....ive never saw code in my sleep but when i lived with my brother i was taking some pretty intense java courses...i woke up one night round 3 or so like "AHAA...THATS IT!!!"...and actually fixed the program i was working on...i think we all get those though

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:15 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I sometimes have to get out of bed to implement a great idea that comes into my head. You can't let these things pass you by :)

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:31 pm
by alex.barylski
people dream of everything...why would you even ask if people dream of something? Of course we do...dreams are just that "dreams" like anything is possible...

I've never had dreams of code cycling through my head, but just the other day I had a dream where I invented a super-solar panel...

My dream went something like:

I'm an enviromentalist at heart, although I keep within boundries of normalcy(sp?) as in, I shower for more than 30 seconds and I do flush the toilet after *every* use (unlike my parents). I am however always looking to inventing or improving something, both in the software world and physical world.

Anyways my dream, I'm sitting one day in a park watching the solar panel absorb solar rays/energy and transforming that into electrical energy, spinning a little stick man. In my dream I'm thinking, I wonder how much enrgy is wasted by the solar panel, as in, how much solar energy does it reflect??? Then it dawns on me. If you could capture the solar energy in a internally reflective sphere, then (remember this is a dream) you would have perpetual motion, something man has tried to do since the dawn of the mechanical age began. Of course this I don't think woulod stand true in reality as the reflective surface would absorb some energy (a perfectly reflective surface would in theory I think reflect all energy) and eventually the trapped energy would dissapate and you would have to start again.

So again, in my dream, I'm thinking...that I could use a reflective mirror on top of a existing solar panel:

-------------------------------
================= (Oneway mirror)
-------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Solar panel)
I figure a one way mirror (in my dreams I have been in the interogation room of the FBI numerous times :P ) could be used to simulate something of a perfect reflective sphere in my other part of my dream...

The idea is simple, sun hits a solar panel and some of that solar energy is used and converted into electrical energy, that energy (solar) which is not used is likely relfected so having a one way mirror so close the the solar panels would return reflected solar energy back onto the solar panel and thus be consumed minimizing solar energy waste. Being a one way mirror allows sunlight in, but not escape that easily.

This dream worked on the principle that sun light takes 8-10 minutes to reach the earth moving at the speed of light. By shorting that distance having wasted solar energy reflected back onto the solar panel, sunlight could in theory be used much quicker than the 8-10 minute latency when travelling all the way from the sun.

When I woke up, actually woke up mid way through the night and start reading about solar energy, pulling out some phsyics books, etc...I later determined that it's not very practical as solar panels themselves use most of the energy and get better each year - like most technologies!

So I gave up on that project in about 2 days :P

So you see...people dream of the strangest things, whether it be a new way to implement a CMS/ORM/Template System (my most recent dreams) or sleeping with Morgan Webb or Olivia Munn from techTV :P

We all dream about weird unimaginable things, its what we do when we sleep...so why would you be shocked someone dreamed about source code??? :P

Cheers :)

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:31 pm
by alex.barylski
d11wtq wrote:I sometimes have to get out of bed to implement a great idea that comes into my head. You can't let these things pass you by :)
Exactly :)

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:30 pm
by matt1019
d11wtq wrote:I sometimes have to get out of bed to implement a great idea that comes into my head. You can't let these things pass you by :)
AMEN to that.

-Matt

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:33 pm
by alex.barylski
^^^ Is there an echo (no pun intended) in here? :P

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:26 am
by Jenk
feyd wrote:
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:^I don't think he's joking! 8O
Nope, not a joke.

There are times when I get visual hints of electromagnetic waves too. It looks like a technicolor rainbow. I'm one of the "lucky" few who has extended yellow band receptors. This isn't a joke either.
I don't suppose you wear an electromagnetically charged coat in your sleep, and your name is Joseph, is it? :lol:

Is that similar (or the same?) as Synaesthesia?