Dream - Destroyer of worlds
Around the first half of September, 2006, I had a dream in which I destroyed the world. It was an accident, though. I wasn't intending to destroy the world at all. Honest.
In the dream, I was in a room that seemed to be made of metal. It was apparently a large control room of some kind, or perhaps some kind of situation room. Someone was standing to one side and slightly behind me. I have the impression that this person wore a uniform of some kind.
A rectangular screen was on the wall, like a television screen. Below it, some kind of panel ran along the wall and protruded from it slightly. There were various controls and lights on both the panel and the wall, but not a large number of them.
The screen on the wall showed a picture of the Earth. It was not a photograph, it was more like a simple map, but without grid lines. It showed the Earth as a globe, but with everything flat. The water was a different color from the land, which also had an outline around it.
Initially, and I think probably before seeing the control room, I saw a large, wide ship filled with people and heading toward Antarctica, probably from someplace in the Pacific Ocean near Africa. The ship was low in the water and did not seem to have an upper structure.
Now, however, in the control room, the ship was replaced by a large island in the picture of the Earth on the screen. The island was vaguely round though somewhat irregular, and slightly flattened on all four sides.
I was happily talking to the person near me about continental drift, and about how over a long span of time the island would move toward Antarctica. To illustrate this, I reached out and put my finger on the island on the screen and pulled it toward Antarctica.
I came to realize, then, that the picture of the Earth was somehow connected to the real Earth, that perhaps it was, in some way, the real Earth.
And that I had moved a large island, perhaps a couple of hundred miles across, a large distance, perhaps a thousand miles or so, in a fraction of a second.
I took my finger away from the screen. There was a slight pause, as if it was waiting to see if I had finished, and then time started again. The island continued moving, cutting across Antarctica, which had become centered on the map. The image of Antarctica turned red, orange and white, and I could see molten rock churning and boiling. Only the far edges of the continent stayed the original color.
The island was destroyed, but momentum kept part of it going, not as an island but as a mass of associated particles and hot gases. It headed out past Antarctica, across the ocean to South America.
The view on the map shifted, then, and I was looking at the North American continent. It was covered with a dusting of snow. The remains of the island were circling the Earth, but going from north to south, not south to north. Each time it passed over North America, a band of the snow disappeared. The cleared bands were perhaps a couple of hundred miles wide, and a new one was added every second or so. The new bands were placed to the east of the old ones. The bands were not quite parallel, and were not exactly evenly spaced. Occasionally they even crossed. A rough striped pattern was being produced, though, as the new bands were added.
I could tell that with each new band the remains of the island became fainter, being composed more and more of hot air and less and less of dust and particles, though it was already so thin from the start that it was transparent from my perspective. I could feel, though, that it was fading out.
Thinking back on the dream, the effect on the Earth was similar to what would happen if a large meteor or comet struck it. A mass extinction of life. Perhaps even a total extinction. Something that could cause an entire continent to become molten rock could certainly do that.
My fault.
Sorry.
In the dream, I was in a room that seemed to be made of metal. It was apparently a large control room of some kind, or perhaps some kind of situation room. Someone was standing to one side and slightly behind me. I have the impression that this person wore a uniform of some kind.
A rectangular screen was on the wall, like a television screen. Below it, some kind of panel ran along the wall and protruded from it slightly. There were various controls and lights on both the panel and the wall, but not a large number of them.
The screen on the wall showed a picture of the Earth. It was not a photograph, it was more like a simple map, but without grid lines. It showed the Earth as a globe, but with everything flat. The water was a different color from the land, which also had an outline around it.
Initially, and I think probably before seeing the control room, I saw a large, wide ship filled with people and heading toward Antarctica, probably from someplace in the Pacific Ocean near Africa. The ship was low in the water and did not seem to have an upper structure.
Now, however, in the control room, the ship was replaced by a large island in the picture of the Earth on the screen. The island was vaguely round though somewhat irregular, and slightly flattened on all four sides.
I was happily talking to the person near me about continental drift, and about how over a long span of time the island would move toward Antarctica. To illustrate this, I reached out and put my finger on the island on the screen and pulled it toward Antarctica.
I came to realize, then, that the picture of the Earth was somehow connected to the real Earth, that perhaps it was, in some way, the real Earth.
And that I had moved a large island, perhaps a couple of hundred miles across, a large distance, perhaps a thousand miles or so, in a fraction of a second.
I took my finger away from the screen. There was a slight pause, as if it was waiting to see if I had finished, and then time started again. The island continued moving, cutting across Antarctica, which had become centered on the map. The image of Antarctica turned red, orange and white, and I could see molten rock churning and boiling. Only the far edges of the continent stayed the original color.
The island was destroyed, but momentum kept part of it going, not as an island but as a mass of associated particles and hot gases. It headed out past Antarctica, across the ocean to South America.
The view on the map shifted, then, and I was looking at the North American continent. It was covered with a dusting of snow. The remains of the island were circling the Earth, but going from north to south, not south to north. Each time it passed over North America, a band of the snow disappeared. The cleared bands were perhaps a couple of hundred miles wide, and a new one was added every second or so. The new bands were placed to the east of the old ones. The bands were not quite parallel, and were not exactly evenly spaced. Occasionally they even crossed. A rough striped pattern was being produced, though, as the new bands were added.
I could tell that with each new band the remains of the island became fainter, being composed more and more of hot air and less and less of dust and particles, though it was already so thin from the start that it was transparent from my perspective. I could feel, though, that it was fading out.
Thinking back on the dream, the effect on the Earth was similar to what would happen if a large meteor or comet struck it. A mass extinction of life. Perhaps even a total extinction. Something that could cause an entire continent to become molten rock could certainly do that.
My fault.
Sorry.
posted by Stephen at 10/26/2006 11:25:00 AM
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