The Game of Life

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Last night I had a very interesting dream about a computer program called “Life” or “The Game of Life.” This was not the one that some people have heard of where cells live or die based on some mathematical rules although it was similar in some ways. To “play” the game I was given a controller which I could configure for 30 to 60 seconds. After that point the game started and ran according to the internal rules without further regard to the status of the controller. In my dream version the game was played out in a virtual house with a lot of very interesting people – they reminded me of the family from You Can’t Take It With You. After wandering the house and observing the characters for half an hour I decided to leave the game.

I went home and learned from my wife that at the time I started the game strange things began happening at home. I soon discovered that this was true as very odd things began happening around our home – for example, we were visted by a virtual character who looked like my best friend. I realized that this game was not as innocent as it had appeared. I was forced to take comfort in the thought, when I attained a state of minimal consciousness in my sleep, that this was all a dream and that when I woke up there would be no intrusions from this so-called game of life.

Finally at 5:45 my wife woke me up so that I could go feed our son, Isaac, for his early feeding. As I got out of bed I noticed that the lights were on downstairs. I assumed that our oldest daughter, Savannah, was having one of her early mornings and was awake downstairs. That’s when things started to get weird on me again. While I was standing on the landing I heard Isaac cry and realized that he was not in his room. He was in the workroom next to his bedroom. I feared that Savannah had taken it upon herself to lift him out of bed and carry him to the next room.

I went downstairs to fix a bottle for Isaac and that is when I discovered that Savannah was not awake – although all the lights were on downstairs. I began to wonder if someone had come into our house. That didn’t make sense considering that nothing was missing, not even any of the computers in the office (where the lights were also on). I finally went back to my bedroom and shook Laura awake to ask if she knew anything about Isaac or the lights. It turns out that she had been awake with Isaac and Savannah during the two or three hours before she woke me up. She had moved Isaac and Savannah had turned on the lights downstairs.

The mystery was solved, but I had been wrong in my dream – the weird occurances had not stopped when I woke up. This really was “the game of life.”