The Tomorrow File

[pj]

The Tomorrow File was a brilliant and disturbing sci-fi novel by Lawrence Sanders, written back in the 1970's.  An ongoing theme in the book was a file of ideas that were great but beyond current technology at the time.

This is our Tomorrow File.  Ideas for this list will come from your suggestions.  These first few are from the If You Could Have Anything You Want thread and from PM'd suggestions we've received.  If you have made a suggestion that isn't here, that means it is probably within much easier reach and has made it on to a current ToDo list.

The Mortal Mist Tomorrow File

• An Instant Messenger-style messaging/chat system
• Some means of gathering and publishing lucidity statistics
• User-defined macro buttons to assist in formatting Dream Journal entries
• Make arrangements for "live" seminars, interviews, etc.

[Tyrant]

a dream recorder would be quite nifty.

[Serith]

How about a reality check feature? If the feature was enabled, every once in a while while on Mortal Mist an image would flash on the screen to remind you to do a reality check.  People could change how often the image appears (3 settings, never, random, or a user-defined time period), how many seconds it stays on the screen, and what image to use.  The default image would just be the words "Are you dreaming?"  with a transparent background.

[Sunshine]

(content removed by user request)

[pj]

Agreed - I like it!  A good one for the Tomorrow File.

[Serith]

I think it would be useful if the forum search could make use of the Dream Catcher system, so if you wanted, you could do things like search for posts that contain lucid dreams and the word fire, or search for all posts containing exactly five lucid dreams, or search for posts containing 0 lucids, dreams, or fragments in order to get only results that aren't dreams.

[pj]

Good suggestions.  Thank you.

[worldbridger]

How about a reality check feature? If the feature was enabled, every once in a while while on Mortal Mist an image would flash on the screen to remind you to do a reality check.  People could change how often the image appears (3 settings, never, random, or a user-defined time period), how many seconds it stays on the screen, and what image to use.  The default image would just be the words "Are you dreaming?"  with a transparent background.

How about a reality check feature that works on your desktop, so that when you are working at your computer it pops up at random intervals (I think it would have to incorporate a sound that could be turned off if necessary - if you work in an office for example). The would also be good to have on your mobile phone or pager. I for one, need something to slap me into awareness, I tend to drift off at every possible opportunity. Sometimes I wonder if I am ever awake in any state?

[Serith]

Worldbridger, I think there is something like that out there somewhere, I'm sure I've read something about it in Dreamviews somewhere.

I did a search and here it is: http://bytered.com/software-realitycheck.html.

I don't want something like that running all the time, which is why I'd prefer one that functions only within Mortal Mist, but that program should do what you want.

[worldbridger]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately it doesn't work on a Mac. I would like something that works with a sound that you could also use through the night. Just think, you have this reality check reminder sound going off at random intervals during the day and then you run it through the night so that it comes into your dreaming. Would this not act as a good link/reminder?

Problem for me, if it is only on Mortal Mist, I'm not browsing the site when I am dreaming, (at least I don't think I am), or during the day when I am wandering around in my usual self-imposed trance.

[pj]

(at least I don't think I am)

Ha!

I spend quite a bit of time browsing MM in my dreams.  You'd think I'd figure it out eventually.

A good suggestion, and worthy of the Tomorrow File.

[The Littlest Leaf Dragon]

*Cough* Ahem.  Is it tomorrow yet?

[pj]

Tomorrow never comes, you know.

[mu]

Sounds like my kind of book.

What exactly is the chat/IM thing?  Has a non-AJAX chat ever been considered here, using something like XMMP?  (Which could be used to implement IMs and a chat room.)

[The Littlest Leaf Dragon]

Sounds like my kind of book.

What exactly is the chat/IM thing?  Has a non-AJAX chat ever been considered here, using something like XMMP?  (Which could be used to implement IMs and a chat room.)

I popup instant message window, similar to how the PM a member works now, but an IM instead.

Click it, it asks the member if they want to chat, then away you go.  Would be nice if you were able to pull in three, four, as many as you would like to invite for a nice cozy PRIVATE chat

The macro system doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to implement.  The biggest problem would be tying it into the system so that it would be driven by a menu system somehow.