Thursday, May 14, 2015
Dumb dream generator!
In tonight's dream I was using a Bekesy audiometer, which emits an automatically controlled sequence of blips, with decreasing and increasing amplitudes. The client pushes a button or moves a lever to indicate when he hears a blip, and his responses are recorded on a chart. The Bekesy is especially popular for fast screening because it doesn't require a skilled operator.
The word blip leads me to suspect that the Dream Generator had been chewing on Petrov's radar screen, digesting it into something more familiar. I'm thoroughly familiar with the Bekesy; used it often in the '70s, and repaired and adjusted it often in the '90s. So the visual and functional aspects were accurate in the dream.
But oddly the name was wrong. It was called a Robot Odometer!
DUMB set of associations! Why was the name dimly seen through the frosted glass of metaphor and Sounds-Like, while the device itself was accurate and finely detailed?
DUMB set of associations! Why was the name dimly seen through the frosted glass of metaphor and Sounds-Like, while the device itself was accurate and finely detailed?Labels: TMI
¶ 3:21 AM
