As often happens with dreams, the beginnings started before retiring for the night. I was explaining to my wife about things Web 2.0 and of Mash Ups and of making sense of the ever growing Internet.
But I woke this morning after a most realistic dream: I was sitting at my computer, though it wasn't the Windows box I have today. In fact, as it often happens in dreams, I was not aware of my computer at all: just that I was using it.
I knew that I was using an application called Google Office (though I don't know how I knew), and I'm not sure how I was controlling it, as I was not aware of a monitor, mice or keyboards; but the 3-D space that was Google Office stretched out in front of me, much larger and less defined than how I think of a monitor interface.
Google Office was a 3-D application in the form of a room, an office in fact, with desk, reading lounge and from memory, a corridor running past the room, in which I could see people passing. In some ways, not dissimilar to some 3-D Desktops that are available today (not that I've seen or used any of those 3-D Desktops).
On my desk was all manner of the usual objects: clock, digital photo-frame, books, etc. I was able to produce some writing paper and begin a document (using MicroSoft Word of all things), I filed it in the cabinet under the desk, and could see many other documents that I'd written or saved (must have been in a different dream, because I didn't remember doing any of it). A diary was there, which I opened and I could see the suspected applications. These existed in 3-D space, I could pick them up, move them and open them. They could be used on the desk or expanded to work on them at a greater zoom. There were even Post-It notes!
In my dream, I was aware of the "newness" of the application (no bugs thankfully and no crashes: it must have been a dream!). The separation between the application and myself was minimal, meaning, I seemed to be in the application (as players are in the action games I see my boys playing). I could see my 3-D representation, but I was not aware of using any input devices.
I retired to the reading couch, moving through 3-D space, and opened the newspaper. I started to read an article about someone I knew (not that I actually knew the person in reality, but I knew that I knew him in the dream). I focused the newspaper and read the article. In the article was a picture of the person I knew, with someone else, whom was included in the article (but I did not know).
I was able to activate the picture and it became a video, which started to play (much like what happens on youTube). Then I was able to reach out and touch the person whom I knew in the video. He became a 3-D entity that emerged from the video and started reacting to me. It was like what happens in a chat programme or a video chat, except it was in 3-D space. At the time in my dream I thought that the contact details for this person had to be included in the image and video somehow: and I thought how wonderful that was, that the ease of connectivity was just like it was when we used to talk to people at the shops next to the tomatoes.
After I finished talking with this person, I released his 3-D image, which went back into the image and the animation stopped. I put the paper down on the reading table. There were people walking past the room, or at least, there were 3-D representations of people walking past the room; I knew that if I wanted I could stop and chat with them (much like we use chat programmes today, except I was visually aware of the people whom I could chat with).
And then I woke up and remembered it all. And now I don't know if I need a dream analyst or a coder?
