Birthing a Lion The Nature of Dreams

Birthing a Lion


I rarely have the pleasure of remembering dreams, and still less frequently do I find them interpretable. I offer the following as an exceptional case, because it did immediately help me through some knots and provided almost literally some needed direction for the next stage of work on the EGG project. I will append some brief notes on that work. Here is the dream description, written first thing after waking.



98-09-10



Woke from a dream at about 07:30. I received a large package that contained all the apparatus for helping a baby lion be born. The mother was "frozen" I guess, but somehow would be alive and give birth to a live cub. There was much technological apparatus. The first part was a practice. A baby's foot would be born. I now don't remember the instructions much but there was a long tube to unroll, and some personal preparations, maybe just washing. I strung up the tube, which was thin, like an eighth of an inch in diameter, there was a sort of receiving box, and it seems some thing like a switch that I must press to start the process. Then there was some long waiting, and even some feeling of urging, comforting, helping, some squeezing? ... finally there was a bulge in the tube and it expanded to a diameter large enough for a paw about the size of a man's finger; the paw and a part of the leg, a forepaw. The paw proceeded through the tube, which became semi-transparent from the stretching, and finally issued into the containter, a little touch of blue, like stains in the matted fur, but really a paw and pretty big, maybe the right thing for a lion. There was someone else involved, but I only remember he (or possibly she) had no more experience than I. We were pretty drained from all this, and decided to pack up and rest, and learn more before proceeding. There was a little difficulty with a tangle in the tubing, but it finally resolved. More stuff about how to arrange things better. I was also worrying over how long the frozen mother lion could be kept so, and beginning to realize there must be some far more sophisticated stuff involved than mere freezing. I think, for example, the package was not big enough for a full grown lion. This and some other logics brought me awake.



Seems very easy for me to interpret: We, the EGG crew, have successfully birthed a beautiful practice lion, at least the paw, and must learn more, must read (write?) the instruction manual before we turn on the system with a live, public presence.



*****



Planning for next stage, growth of the EGG network:



The primary linkages are made and we are now taking data that are well-qualified, though we still need some synchronization work, and probably a little more testing before we can say fully-qualified.



This means we are ready in a fundamental sense to begin directly recruiting more egg hosts, and I have a few who are in fact ready. Practically, there is still much to be done to make the setup of new eggs possible. There are several options that we may pursue:



1. Recruit friends, and egg-friendly people, who run unix or linux systems. They will need:





REG/RNG device

Eggsh software (which may need to be locally compiled)

NTP time synch (maybe help with configuration)

Internet connection

Instruction

2. Provide computer that is set up and ready to plug in. This requires that we build a setup package or arrange setup with provider:





Buy 486 or better, with 300+ meg disk, cdrom, modem *

Create minimal linux installation on floppy and cdrom.

linux (how about x-wndows?)

eggsh

ppp, slip, other communication?

NTP

other possibles, e.g., netscape

Configuration form, to get host information

Arrange shipping of computer and REG/RNG

Internet connection **

Instructions, which will need to be extensive

* Yesterday, I discovered via www.PC-today, a company 10 miles from Princeton that builds and sells refurbished computers via mail/UPS. For example, the item that caught my eye: 486 DX/66, with 16meg ram and a 540 or 818 meg disk, cdrom, modem, and 15" SVGA monitor, for $299 -- no operating system :-). I will visit, and discuss possibility of installing our minimal linux and software package, for shipping to our egghosts.



** For connections inside the US, one very simple possiblity, suggested by Charles, is to long-distance dial directly to noosphere. As I recall Greg's calculations in the spec document, this would cost on the order of $1.50 per day to dialup 1/hour, at 10 cents per minute.



3. Let host provide computer or buy one locally. This requires the same material as option 2, but with additional instruction.



4. Port eggsh for Windows, and use host's machine already in use. This requires steely nerves, great courage, boundless determination, and, yet, it may be sensible. In addition, this requires the package from option 2, with greatly enhanced instruction module.