Tag Archives: Dream

I only remember a dream every year or so, but I realized on the way back from getting breakfast with friends this morning that a book I thought I’d been reading was entirely in a dream. It was a long dream with various dream-space fucked-up-ness to the setting building (No University space is that large, that nice… or has three large highly styled cafe/lounge spaces in the same complex) and interaction with various old acquaintances, but there was one section I didn’t realize was a dream because it was so normal:
< dream content >
I picked up a book (roughly A4 sized, and inch or so thick, nicely black cloth-bound with gold embossing) about code generation for a particular class of exotic hybrid-SIMD machines (I remember details, which are realistic, but not specific enough to pick out which machine) by David Padua (respected figure in parallel computing, who I’ve met at conferences) and a coauthor I couldn’t remember when I woke up. I got the book from a well stocked engineering library, and discussed it with various engineering types I know, including my current adviser.
< /dream content >
Until we were headed back from breakfast and I realized the setting was “improbable,” I was sure it had happened. When I got home I had to see if it was something I may have seen referenced – the content and authors were probably based on “Optimizing data permutations for SIMD devices.” which I read a year or two ago, but it isn’t an exact match. The description I remember also matches a section in Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing (four volume, $1500) book that I’ve never seen before (and now want access to). I also want the dream book, because it would be all kinds of useful for my MS project.
Aren’t brains interesting…