It came to me in a dream
Apr. 23rd, 2012 01:10 pmAccording to legend, in the early 1860s Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz had some sort of dream of snakes biting their own tails and, so inspired, figured out that benzene has a ring structure. I assume people still tell this tale a hundred and fifty years later because, really, how often does anything worthwhile occur to you in a dream? For example, this morning the thought that came to me in a dream was "the stunt men are starting the day by setting loudspeakers on fire." I really don't know what to say, other than that this idea isn't exactly in the same league as the structure of benzene. At best, it sounds like a concept for cover art for a recording of some kind of music that would go with that sort of cover art. I don't even know what kind of music that might be. Presumably something really loud, or possibly inspired by Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.