Imagination

You're on a computer-human trip!

March 15th 2005: a friend A Written History of Kevin R. VanDenBreemen: Volume II, page 243.

The driver should deal with making the hardware available, leaving all the issues about how to use the hardware to the applications.

Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman. Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Ed. Sebastopol: O'Reilly, 2005, page 3

It is through the use of DAI, or dramatic associative imagery, that the consultant takes both its physical shape and its vocabulary. The DAI construct itself is a complex world in which events and objects correspond metaphorically to counterparts in the life being lived by the person in whose mind it exists.

Kevin R. VanDenBreemen. A Written History of Kevin R. VanDenBreemen: Volume I, page 170.

In this rather reflective entry I wish to tie together the imagination and the real world. In doing this, I seek to demonstrate some of the practical implications of the use of complex imaginative frameworks in accomplishing sizable tasks.

The first quote above demonstrates the concern some of my friends have had for me over the years. Perhaps it can be said that that concern has not been totally without cause, but I believe that by the end of this entry the reader should be both well-acquainted with some methods for making use of dramatic visualization in solving a problem and on shakier ground in her conviction that such use of the imagination -- such obsession -- is a cause for alarm.

The second quote above demonstrates some of the parallels between the use of imagination and the management of hardware as it occurs in a computer system. Imagination -- similar to a device such as a graphics card -- offers itself up for the service of the driver, which in turn gives that service over to the application. But note the flexibility offered. The device driver - the user of the imagination - does not care about the end to which the machinery under its care is put. Its only concern is to ensure that services are delivered to anyone needing them.

Finally, the third quote above comes from a small essay I wrote on Octover 24th, 2003. Here we see imagination in action. The DAI construct, a metaphorical world generated based upon elements in the world around the user (that being the individual generating DAI constructs within his mind), serves as an application for the imagination. But still, to what end is the DAI being put?

Past Applications

Consider the language of Attrendian. Project Spearhead, as my Summer 2004 linguistic endeavours were entitled, ran with the help of a DAI construct. Here I made use of an image of a school, wherein the professors taught this language. Furthermore, by the end of the summer I was firmly convinced that I had taken DAI and made it practical. But in truth, Project Spearhead was not the first time DAI constructs were involved in personal development. While I built my game engine in 2003-2004 for school I made use of DAI to visualize a group of engineers working together on the problem. Granted, of course, these engineers apparently did not do a very good job in using good abstraction and encapsulation, as the engine later failed for mysterious reasons. In doing my workouts I have often visualized military corps engaged in physical activity. In this sense I am able to create within myself some of the fervor of an actual experience working out among a group of stirred up combattants.

Present Applications: DAI As Focus for Emotion

Given the very bipolar nature of my emotions (I cannot feel anger and happiness at the same time, for example) DAI serves as a methodology for taking that which seems broken and putting it back together. The consultants - individuals populating the metaphorical world of the DAI construct - all act as certain facets of myself and of my emotions. Thus, anger and happiness can co-exist so long as there exist two consultants responsible for maintaining them.

DAI is also something that requires a good deal of imagination to maintain. A construct is an entity requiring the imagination to function. Since I have a mind that is terribly noisy, DAI acts as a good focal point to channel all that energy: Use it to build worlds.

Conclusion

To sum up, in this entry I have taken my computer-human trip to a new height. Here imagination acts as device, while DAI acts as device driver. Application? A project, an exercise, an emotional management system... Anything you want. This is the art of psycho-architecturing.