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NDC’s DreamSeer Scoring System
Preamble
The National Dream Center uses a standardized scoring system to rate how well someone “dreamed the future.” The score itself comes in three parts and looks like this example: 4.5 – 2.0 – 5.0, or T5-4-2. The three numbers symbolize WHAT – WHERE – WHEN. The “T” in the second example denotes a “Tickle,” which is explained in Change 6.
The entire page here explains exactly how to score any news event that matches a prior dream. The most important thing to know first off, is that in order to begin scoring the dream, one must take the news headline and figure out what the main plot was. The main plot has a subject and a verb and hopefully many other descriptors.
So, before you begin reading, look at the headline and figure what the subject and verb is for the news article. THEN (and only then) do you go into the dream to compare how well you dreamed that main theme (i.e., the main subject and verb of the headline).
For example, a news headline of “Government building catches on fire,” “Building” is the subject (or main noun of the news) and “Catches on fire” is the verb (or main action of the news). Now, no matter what the dream is, we can begin scoring the dream…
Before the actual criteria is explained, realize that the first section next will always be the “Latest Change” so that people returning to this scoring page will know exactly what the latest info is.
A “Tickle” news article is defined as an event that doesn’t actually happen, but news is reporting something that either predicts or hypothesizes or warns about what we predicted. For example, in the Proj Aug’s drought headline, we predicted that a community would become vacant due to an unprecedented drought. All summer long (2014), the media ended up talking about how they might have to migrate people from California due to the unprecedented drought. The actual migration hasn’t happened, but the media is predicting/warning about the same thing that we predicted two months prior to them discussing it. Therefore, this is a “Tickle.”
Tickle scoring. Three criteria: 1) the article “hit” must be from a link that affords thousands of viewers (or the combination of links affords thousands to see the news/prediction/warning/etc.) In other words, the news has to be big. 2) Next, start the score with a (T) for “Tickle,” meaning the event didn’t really happen, but is hypothetically referenced or predicted by the media. 3) Finally, score everything as you normally would.
For example, in the drought headline, the score would look like (T)5–4–3. The T means that the event didn’t really happen yet, but media is either referencing it as if it almost happened or will happen or some sort of hypothetical about the event.
NOTE: Previous changes are still annotated in various colors, and the full list of changes can be found at the bottom of the page.
INTRODUCTION
Caution: At first glance this scoring system might look cumbersome and difficult, but I PROMISE it is easy as pie and you’ll love it after getting used to it. You’ll love it because there is so much LESS subjectivity than in the old system.
But, it will take some practice and some growing pains, so my recommendation is just to casually look through this, just to expose yourself to it.
PLEASE don’t let this complex-looking description get in the way of accepting this system. And by all means if something doesn’t make sense, please contact us.
Format of the New Scoring
The biggest block to acclimating yourself at this point will be the format of the scoring system. In most situations, there will be THREE NUMBERS and each of these numbers will go from ZERO to FIVE.
There will be NO DECIMALS decimals from metaphoric deductions in 0.5 increments, but there will not be decimals such as 4.2 or 3.3, for example. There will only be whole and half integers for this scoring system.
There will be three numbers and the:
1st Number will represent WHAT.
2nd Number will represent WHERE
3rd Number will represent WHEN
Format = (WHAT – WHERE – WHEN) (e.g. 2-4-4)
The official score will have three numbers separated by a hyphen. Each of the 3 areas shall have a number even if one of those three is a zero (e.g., 5-5-0 means that the event was perfectly predicted and the location was perfectly predicted, but the timing was completely off).
Early Examples
5-5-5: This is the max score, and can only be attained if every requirement is perfectly met in accordance with the criteria below.
5-0-5: This would mean that the event description (WHAT) was exactly perfect and it happened exactly when it was predicted, but the location (WHERE) was completely wrong.
3-3-3: This would mean that the event (WHAT) was pretty close, it happened pretty close to the predicted location (WHERE), and the timing (WHEN) was pretty close.
Uh oh, that sounds pretty nebulous, huh? So now we need specific criteria to really hone in on precise, reliable scores. Incidentally, the WHERE and WHEN will be VERY specific and cut ‘n dry. The WHAT (first number) perhaps still has a little subjectivity in the scoring. Therefore, we’ll cover how to mitigate the first number errors in a later section.
EXACT CRITERIA
Note: Full explanation is provided below this top section. The criteria is duplicated here at the top in order to serve as a quick reference guide. All Phase II scores have 3 numbers separated by a hyphen. The numbers stand for…. WHAT – WHERE – WHEN.
Caveat: The following chart assumes literal content only. For interpreting metaphors, see explanation below the scoring.
First Number = WHAT
Note: See Change 5 above. If the subject and verb are commonly seen in today’s world, then a secondary set of descriptors are needed to grade this event. We need something that is unique between dream and reality.
5 – The MAIN Subject and Verb of the real life story are both exactly predicted by the dream, and at least one other main descriptor (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, color, height, weight, etc.) is also exactly correct. (note: none may be inferred from the prediction…it must be spelled out ahead of time, e.g., “goes awry” or “happens badly” are NOT valid descriptors).
4 – The MAIN Subject of the real-life story is exactly correct, and the MAIN Verb of the real-life story is exactly correct.
3 – At least two descriptors exactly correct but at least one has to be either the main noun or main verb about the event.
2 – At least two descriptors exactly correct (can be any combination of noun, verb, adj, adverb, color, height, weight, etc.).
1 – At least one descriptor exactly correct.
0 – No event descriptions accurate
Note: If the event didn’t actually take place, but was mentioned in an article as hypothetical or a warning or almost happened, then use the “tickle Criteria from Change 6″:
– The article “hit” must be from a link that affords thousands of viewers (or the combination of links affords thousands) to see the news/prediction/warning/etc. In other words, the news has to be big.
– Start the score with a (T) to denote “Tickle,” meaning the event didn’t really happen, but is hypothetically referenced or predicted by the media.
– Score all thee parts of the event as normal. A scored Tickle should look like this example: (T)2-3-5
Second Number = WHERE
If no location is predicted from the dream, you may use the location of where the dreamer is physically located when the dream takes place.
5 – Correct ADDRESS…exact address or clear, specific landmark (within a 1- mile radius) of where the actual event was predicted.
4 – Correct CITY…. exact city, state (or equivalent), and country were all correctly predicted.
3 – Correct STATE… exact state or province or sub-country geographical area was correctly predicted.
2 – Correct COUNTRY…. exact country or sub-continent geographical area was correctly predicted.
1 – Correct CONTINENT….exact continent was correctly predicted
0 – Useless! ….The location was completely different than what was predicted.
Third Number = WHEN
Note: If the dreamer intends to dream about a certain date, then the score is measured based on the target date (unless a new date is given in the dream or interpreted from the dream prior to the event taking place). However, if no date is intended, dreamed, or interpreted from the dream, then the default target date is the actual day and time of the dream. For example, if the news happens 3 days after the dream takes place, that is 4 points.
5 – Correct DAY….Event manifested on the exactly correct day.
4 – Correct WEEK….Event manifested in the correct week of the correct month and year that was predicted.
3 – Correct MONTH… Event manifested in the correct month of the correct year that was predicted.
2 – Correct SEASON…. Event manifested in the correct season of the correct year.
1 – Correct YEAR….Event manifested within 1 year of predicted time
0 – Useless! ….The WHEN component was outside + or – one year
Literal vs Metaphor:
This section was added in Change 2 (08/22/2014)
a. Metaphors only receive literal-level scores if the dreamer accurately analyzes the content shortly after the dream but definitely before the news comes out. The criteria looks daunting, but just keep these two general rules:
1. Literal content that manifests ADDS to your score. Metaphoric content SUBTRACTS from the literal score.
2. You can get FULL points for metaphors as long as you document it (provable documentation) PRIOR to the event.
b. News cannot be used to help the dreamer make the literal translations, i.e., the scoring isn’t retroactive after the news fulfills the metaphor unless the literal translation is documented prior to the event.
c. The literal translation must delineate exactly which core score the metaphor belongs to. For example, a dream about a march could be for WHAT (a marching band), WHERE (March AFB, CA), or WHEN (March 2015). To get full literal-equivalent points, you must have identified which score your metaphor belongs to and what it means. In other words, you must make the metaphor literal prior to your event starting to manifest in real life.
d. If your literal translation is wrong in any way, you fall back to metaphoric scoring (abbreviated summary):
- Full literal points if metaphor was fully documented prior to event
- subtract 0.5 points for very obvious metaphor
- subtract add’l 0.5 points if the metaphor is reasonably obvious only after it comes true
- subtract add’l 0.5 points for every degree of DIRECTNESS
- full explanation follows with examples:
e. Full Explanation for Scoring metaphors
1. If you identified the metaphor correctly and have it documented, you receive full points as if the dream content was literal.
2. If you did not identify the metaphor or it wasn’t documented or your translation was wrong, you start by taking your metaphor and assume that it was literal content to see what score it would produce. Then, you begin subtracting points from the matrix below
- subtract 0.5 points if the metaphor falls into that general category that says, “This dreamer should have been able to see this metaphor before the event.” The metaphor is grossly common in everyday life and cannot be confused with anything else. It’s one of those things where if we didn’t see the metaphor we slap our heads and say, “What was I thinking–that was SO obvious!” and everyone else is thinking, “What were they thinking–that was SO obvious!”
- subtract additional 0.5 points if the metaphor was still directly and obviously predictive, but the dreamer should not have been expected to pull out this metaphor ahead of time. After the event happens, the metaphor is crystal clear and anyone with half a brain should easily see the connection. The reason why the dreamer didn’t pick up on the metaphor ahead of time is because there were either too many metaphoric connections or perhaps they chose the wrong core score (WHAT-WHERE-WHEN) to put it in.
- subtract additional 0.5 points for each degree of DIRECTNESS between metaphor and real life. In a gross example, let’s say the dream was a single band member playing a trumpet. The event ends up happening in the month of March, and you say, “Aha! The band member was in a marching band, so the metaphor was March…it happened in March.” Since the band member wasn’t marching in the dream, that would be 1 degree away with BAND as the link. Therefore, a total of 1.5 points subtracted: the previous two pointers plus this 0.5 for 1 degree of directness.
Next example: Let’s say the event happens in real life in the parking lot where the band normally marches. This is 2 degrees away. First, we have to connect the band member in a marching band, and then we have to connect where the marching band normally marches…in the parking lot. It’s two degrees away because the parking lot was NOT in the dream…the parking lot was connected only by way to two degrees of metaphor.
Newsflash: Max Score is already known!
We will know the max possible score available to the DreamSeer BEFORE the event takes place! For example, a prediction such as “Something in South America” carries a MAX SCORE of 0-1-0. That would be a virtually useless prediction, as we’ve seen in Project August, because there is no subject and verb (no WHAT component), a very nebulous WHERE component, and no time estimation.
Alternatively, “Whale trapped in Canadian waters sometime in Fall 2014” would carry a MAX SCORE of 5-2-2. If this event comes to pass, the resulting score is guaranteed to be equal to or less than 5-2-2, but it might be a lot worse, depending on what actually happens and where it happens and when.
We will use this MAX SCORE to identify certain actions needed for our predictions. For example, a prediction carrying a max score of 5-0-5 obviously needs some WHERE component. Therefore, we’ll call upon certain dreamers (or all dreamers) to intend about WHERE this prediction will take place.
This is called the ITERATIVE approach, and is something we never tried in Proj Aug, but will be one of the biggest lessons learned. Basically, we take our dreams and lay out the big memes first. From the memes, we fill in low-probability headlines and determine MAX SCORES. From the max score, we know what information is lacking, and thus have our dreamers go back into that meme to fill in the blanks.
Ideally, we’d like our MAX SCORES to all be 5-5-5, but sometimes that will not be fully available to us.
The MAX SCORE will also be useful for DreamSeer competitions, where the contestants will know exactly where they are lacking and thus will work to beef up those scores.
…and much more.
One Last Thing – “WHY”
Some of our better predictions will actually have correct WHY components. Right now, my plan is to NOT include a number with this why, but instead simply add a plus sign (+) at the end of the score (e.g., 4-3-4 +)
The reason for the WHY is because this really shows an advanced look into the future. It’s one thing to predict WHAT will come but to describe the WHY is incrementally more thorough.
For example, we really have no idea how the China man was hit in the head with a knife. What was the person doing up in the building to where they dropped or threw the knife? We will probably never know this answer, but accurately predicting the why component definitely does show a remarkable understanding about the future (if the explanation is correct, obviously).
A “Tickle” news article is defined as an event that doesn’t actually happen, but news is reporting something that either predicts or hypothesizes or warns about what we predicted. For example, in the Proj Aug’s drought headline, we predicted that a community would become vacant due to an unprecedented drought. All summer long (2014), the media ended up talking about how they might have to migrate people from California due to the unprecedented drought. The actual migration hasn’t happened, but the media is predicting/warning about the same thing that we predicted two months prior to them discussing it. Therefore, this is a “Tickle.”
Tickle scoring. Three criteria: 1) the article “hit” must be from a link that affords thousands of viewers (or the combination of links affords thousands to see the news/prediction/warning/etc.) In other words, the news has to be big. 2) Next, start the score with a (T) for “Tickle,” meaning the event didn’t really happen, but is hypothetically referenced or predicted by the media. 3) Finally, score everything as you normally would.
For example, in the drought headline, the score would look like (T)5–4–3. The T means that the event didn’t really happen yet, but media is either referencing it as if it almost happened or will happen or some sort of hypothetical about the event.
Change 5 (08/25/2014). If the event we’re grading is a common occurrence, or is something that happens regularly somewhere in the world frequently, then a secondary set of descriptors (ideally, a subject, verb, and misc. descriptor) must be used to score the event. For example, the dream predicted a building fire. This sort of thing happens regularly, so we start with the actual building fire to simply connect the dream to the event. But when we actually go to score the event, we need something more defining, something that can distinguish this building fire from all the hundreds of others happening around the world. In this example, it’s an apartment building with red bricks and 10 stories high, and the fire firefighters were able to put it out after 1 hour. How does the dream match up to that last statement? That is the part which will be graded for the WHAT component. Magenta text below.
Change 4 (08/24/2014). TIMING criteria. If no date is given in the dream or was interpreted from the dream (must be interpreted prior to the event), and there was no intention to dream about a specific date, then the timing defaults to the date of the actual dream. Details in green text.
Change 3 (08/23/2014): The score itself begins with the real-life story / news event. We look at the news event to see what the MAIN subject, verb, and descriptor is. Then we see how well the dream matched it. ALSO added for the WHERE component: the location of the dreamer (where they were when the dream occurred) can be assumed. See blue text for details.
Change 2 (08/22/2014): Added criteria for metaphoric connections. New section is in red.
Preamble
The National Dream Center uses a standardized scoring system to rate how well someone “dreamed the future.” The score itself comes in three parts and looks like this example: 4.5 – 2.0 – 5.0, or T5-4-2. The three numbers symbolize WHAT – WHERE – WHEN. The “T” in the second example denotes a “Tickle,” which is explained in Change 6.
The entire page here explains exactly how to score any news event that matches a prior dream. The most important thing to know first off, is that in order to begin scoring the dream, one must take the news headline and figure out what the main plot was. The main plot has a subject and a verb and hopefully many other descriptors.
So, before you begin reading, look at the headline and figure what the subject and verb is for the news article. THEN (and only then) do you go into the dream to compare how well you dreamed that main theme (i.e., the main subject and verb of the headline).
For example, a news headline of “Government building catches on fire,” “Building” is the subject (or main noun of the news) and “Catches on fire” is the verb (or main action of the news). Now, no matter what the dream is, we can begin scoring the dream…
Before the actual criteria is explained, realize that the first section next will always be the “Latest Change” so that people returning to this scoring page will know exactly what the latest info is.
Latest Change
Change 6 (10/12/2014). “Tickle Criteria”A “Tickle” news article is defined as an event that doesn’t actually happen, but news is reporting something that either predicts or hypothesizes or warns about what we predicted. For example, in the Proj Aug’s drought headline, we predicted that a community would become vacant due to an unprecedented drought. All summer long (2014), the media ended up talking about how they might have to migrate people from California due to the unprecedented drought. The actual migration hasn’t happened, but the media is predicting/warning about the same thing that we predicted two months prior to them discussing it. Therefore, this is a “Tickle.”
Tickle scoring. Three criteria: 1) the article “hit” must be from a link that affords thousands of viewers (or the combination of links affords thousands to see the news/prediction/warning/etc.) In other words, the news has to be big. 2) Next, start the score with a (T) for “Tickle,” meaning the event didn’t really happen, but is hypothetically referenced or predicted by the media. 3) Finally, score everything as you normally would.
For example, in the drought headline, the score would look like (T)5–4–3. The T means that the event didn’t really happen yet, but media is either referencing it as if it almost happened or will happen or some sort of hypothetical about the event.
NOTE: Previous changes are still annotated in various colors, and the full list of changes can be found at the bottom of the page.
INTRODUCTION
Caution: At first glance this scoring system might look cumbersome and difficult, but I PROMISE it is easy as pie and you’ll love it after getting used to it. You’ll love it because there is so much LESS subjectivity than in the old system.
But, it will take some practice and some growing pains, so my recommendation is just to casually look through this, just to expose yourself to it.
PLEASE don’t let this complex-looking description get in the way of accepting this system. And by all means if something doesn’t make sense, please contact us.
Format of the New Scoring
The biggest block to acclimating yourself at this point will be the format of the scoring system. In most situations, there will be THREE NUMBERS and each of these numbers will go from ZERO to FIVE.
There will be NO DECIMALS decimals from metaphoric deductions in 0.5 increments, but there will not be decimals such as 4.2 or 3.3, for example. There will only be whole and half integers for this scoring system.
There will be three numbers and the:
1st Number will represent WHAT.
2nd Number will represent WHERE
3rd Number will represent WHEN
Format = (WHAT – WHERE – WHEN) (e.g. 2-4-4)
The official score will have three numbers separated by a hyphen. Each of the 3 areas shall have a number even if one of those three is a zero (e.g., 5-5-0 means that the event was perfectly predicted and the location was perfectly predicted, but the timing was completely off).
Early Examples
5-5-5: This is the max score, and can only be attained if every requirement is perfectly met in accordance with the criteria below.
5-0-5: This would mean that the event description (WHAT) was exactly perfect and it happened exactly when it was predicted, but the location (WHERE) was completely wrong.
3-3-3: This would mean that the event (WHAT) was pretty close, it happened pretty close to the predicted location (WHERE), and the timing (WHEN) was pretty close.
Uh oh, that sounds pretty nebulous, huh? So now we need specific criteria to really hone in on precise, reliable scores. Incidentally, the WHERE and WHEN will be VERY specific and cut ‘n dry. The WHAT (first number) perhaps still has a little subjectivity in the scoring. Therefore, we’ll cover how to mitigate the first number errors in a later section.
EXACT CRITERIA
Note: Full explanation is provided below this top section. The criteria is duplicated here at the top in order to serve as a quick reference guide. All Phase II scores have 3 numbers separated by a hyphen. The numbers stand for…. WHAT – WHERE – WHEN.
Caveat: The following chart assumes literal content only. For interpreting metaphors, see explanation below the scoring.
First Number = WHAT
Note: See Change 5 above. If the subject and verb are commonly seen in today’s world, then a secondary set of descriptors are needed to grade this event. We need something that is unique between dream and reality.
5 – The MAIN Subject and Verb of the real life story are both exactly predicted by the dream, and at least one other main descriptor (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, color, height, weight, etc.) is also exactly correct. (note: none may be inferred from the prediction…it must be spelled out ahead of time, e.g., “goes awry” or “happens badly” are NOT valid descriptors).
4 – The MAIN Subject of the real-life story is exactly correct, and the MAIN Verb of the real-life story is exactly correct.
3 – At least two descriptors exactly correct but at least one has to be either the main noun or main verb about the event.
2 – At least two descriptors exactly correct (can be any combination of noun, verb, adj, adverb, color, height, weight, etc.).
1 – At least one descriptor exactly correct.
0 – No event descriptions accurate
Note: If the event didn’t actually take place, but was mentioned in an article as hypothetical or a warning or almost happened, then use the “tickle Criteria from Change 6″:
– The article “hit” must be from a link that affords thousands of viewers (or the combination of links affords thousands) to see the news/prediction/warning/etc. In other words, the news has to be big.
– Start the score with a (T) to denote “Tickle,” meaning the event didn’t really happen, but is hypothetically referenced or predicted by the media.
– Score all thee parts of the event as normal. A scored Tickle should look like this example: (T)2-3-5
Second Number = WHERE
If no location is predicted from the dream, you may use the location of where the dreamer is physically located when the dream takes place.
5 – Correct ADDRESS…exact address or clear, specific landmark (within a 1- mile radius) of where the actual event was predicted.
4 – Correct CITY…. exact city, state (or equivalent), and country were all correctly predicted.
3 – Correct STATE… exact state or province or sub-country geographical area was correctly predicted.
2 – Correct COUNTRY…. exact country or sub-continent geographical area was correctly predicted.
1 – Correct CONTINENT….exact continent was correctly predicted
0 – Useless! ….The location was completely different than what was predicted.
Third Number = WHEN
Note: If the dreamer intends to dream about a certain date, then the score is measured based on the target date (unless a new date is given in the dream or interpreted from the dream prior to the event taking place). However, if no date is intended, dreamed, or interpreted from the dream, then the default target date is the actual day and time of the dream. For example, if the news happens 3 days after the dream takes place, that is 4 points.
5 – Correct DAY….Event manifested on the exactly correct day.
4 – Correct WEEK….Event manifested in the correct week of the correct month and year that was predicted.
3 – Correct MONTH… Event manifested in the correct month of the correct year that was predicted.
2 – Correct SEASON…. Event manifested in the correct season of the correct year.
1 – Correct YEAR….Event manifested within 1 year of predicted time
0 – Useless! ….The WHEN component was outside + or – one year
Literal vs Metaphor:
This section was added in Change 2 (08/22/2014)
a. Metaphors only receive literal-level scores if the dreamer accurately analyzes the content shortly after the dream but definitely before the news comes out. The criteria looks daunting, but just keep these two general rules:
1. Literal content that manifests ADDS to your score. Metaphoric content SUBTRACTS from the literal score.
2. You can get FULL points for metaphors as long as you document it (provable documentation) PRIOR to the event.
b. News cannot be used to help the dreamer make the literal translations, i.e., the scoring isn’t retroactive after the news fulfills the metaphor unless the literal translation is documented prior to the event.
c. The literal translation must delineate exactly which core score the metaphor belongs to. For example, a dream about a march could be for WHAT (a marching band), WHERE (March AFB, CA), or WHEN (March 2015). To get full literal-equivalent points, you must have identified which score your metaphor belongs to and what it means. In other words, you must make the metaphor literal prior to your event starting to manifest in real life.
d. If your literal translation is wrong in any way, you fall back to metaphoric scoring (abbreviated summary):
- Full literal points if metaphor was fully documented prior to event
- subtract 0.5 points for very obvious metaphor
- subtract add’l 0.5 points if the metaphor is reasonably obvious only after it comes true
- subtract add’l 0.5 points for every degree of DIRECTNESS
- full explanation follows with examples:
e. Full Explanation for Scoring metaphors
1. If you identified the metaphor correctly and have it documented, you receive full points as if the dream content was literal.
2. If you did not identify the metaphor or it wasn’t documented or your translation was wrong, you start by taking your metaphor and assume that it was literal content to see what score it would produce. Then, you begin subtracting points from the matrix below
- subtract 0.5 points if the metaphor falls into that general category that says, “This dreamer should have been able to see this metaphor before the event.” The metaphor is grossly common in everyday life and cannot be confused with anything else. It’s one of those things where if we didn’t see the metaphor we slap our heads and say, “What was I thinking–that was SO obvious!” and everyone else is thinking, “What were they thinking–that was SO obvious!”
- subtract additional 0.5 points if the metaphor was still directly and obviously predictive, but the dreamer should not have been expected to pull out this metaphor ahead of time. After the event happens, the metaphor is crystal clear and anyone with half a brain should easily see the connection. The reason why the dreamer didn’t pick up on the metaphor ahead of time is because there were either too many metaphoric connections or perhaps they chose the wrong core score (WHAT-WHERE-WHEN) to put it in.
- subtract additional 0.5 points for each degree of DIRECTNESS between metaphor and real life. In a gross example, let’s say the dream was a single band member playing a trumpet. The event ends up happening in the month of March, and you say, “Aha! The band member was in a marching band, so the metaphor was March…it happened in March.” Since the band member wasn’t marching in the dream, that would be 1 degree away with BAND as the link. Therefore, a total of 1.5 points subtracted: the previous two pointers plus this 0.5 for 1 degree of directness.
Next example: Let’s say the event happens in real life in the parking lot where the band normally marches. This is 2 degrees away. First, we have to connect the band member in a marching band, and then we have to connect where the marching band normally marches…in the parking lot. It’s two degrees away because the parking lot was NOT in the dream…the parking lot was connected only by way to two degrees of metaphor.
Newsflash: Max Score is already known!
We will know the max possible score available to the DreamSeer BEFORE the event takes place! For example, a prediction such as “Something in South America” carries a MAX SCORE of 0-1-0. That would be a virtually useless prediction, as we’ve seen in Project August, because there is no subject and verb (no WHAT component), a very nebulous WHERE component, and no time estimation.
Alternatively, “Whale trapped in Canadian waters sometime in Fall 2014” would carry a MAX SCORE of 5-2-2. If this event comes to pass, the resulting score is guaranteed to be equal to or less than 5-2-2, but it might be a lot worse, depending on what actually happens and where it happens and when.
We will use this MAX SCORE to identify certain actions needed for our predictions. For example, a prediction carrying a max score of 5-0-5 obviously needs some WHERE component. Therefore, we’ll call upon certain dreamers (or all dreamers) to intend about WHERE this prediction will take place.
This is called the ITERATIVE approach, and is something we never tried in Proj Aug, but will be one of the biggest lessons learned. Basically, we take our dreams and lay out the big memes first. From the memes, we fill in low-probability headlines and determine MAX SCORES. From the max score, we know what information is lacking, and thus have our dreamers go back into that meme to fill in the blanks.
Ideally, we’d like our MAX SCORES to all be 5-5-5, but sometimes that will not be fully available to us.
The MAX SCORE will also be useful for DreamSeer competitions, where the contestants will know exactly where they are lacking and thus will work to beef up those scores.
…and much more.
One Last Thing – “WHY”
Some of our better predictions will actually have correct WHY components. Right now, my plan is to NOT include a number with this why, but instead simply add a plus sign (+) at the end of the score (e.g., 4-3-4 +)
The reason for the WHY is because this really shows an advanced look into the future. It’s one thing to predict WHAT will come but to describe the WHY is incrementally more thorough.
For example, we really have no idea how the China man was hit in the head with a knife. What was the person doing up in the building to where they dropped or threw the knife? We will probably never know this answer, but accurately predicting the why component definitely does show a remarkable understanding about the future (if the explanation is correct, obviously).
Summary of Changes
Change 6 (10/12/2014). “Tickle Criteria”A “Tickle” news article is defined as an event that doesn’t actually happen, but news is reporting something that either predicts or hypothesizes or warns about what we predicted. For example, in the Proj Aug’s drought headline, we predicted that a community would become vacant due to an unprecedented drought. All summer long (2014), the media ended up talking about how they might have to migrate people from California due to the unprecedented drought. The actual migration hasn’t happened, but the media is predicting/warning about the same thing that we predicted two months prior to them discussing it. Therefore, this is a “Tickle.”
Tickle scoring. Three criteria: 1) the article “hit” must be from a link that affords thousands of viewers (or the combination of links affords thousands to see the news/prediction/warning/etc.) In other words, the news has to be big. 2) Next, start the score with a (T) for “Tickle,” meaning the event didn’t really happen, but is hypothetically referenced or predicted by the media. 3) Finally, score everything as you normally would.
For example, in the drought headline, the score would look like (T)5–4–3. The T means that the event didn’t really happen yet, but media is either referencing it as if it almost happened or will happen or some sort of hypothetical about the event.
Change 5 (08/25/2014). If the event we’re grading is a common occurrence, or is something that happens regularly somewhere in the world frequently, then a secondary set of descriptors (ideally, a subject, verb, and misc. descriptor) must be used to score the event. For example, the dream predicted a building fire. This sort of thing happens regularly, so we start with the actual building fire to simply connect the dream to the event. But when we actually go to score the event, we need something more defining, something that can distinguish this building fire from all the hundreds of others happening around the world. In this example, it’s an apartment building with red bricks and 10 stories high, and the fire firefighters were able to put it out after 1 hour. How does the dream match up to that last statement? That is the part which will be graded for the WHAT component. Magenta text below.
Change 4 (08/24/2014). TIMING criteria. If no date is given in the dream or was interpreted from the dream (must be interpreted prior to the event), and there was no intention to dream about a specific date, then the timing defaults to the date of the actual dream. Details in green text.
Change 3 (08/23/2014): The score itself begins with the real-life story / news event. We look at the news event to see what the MAIN subject, verb, and descriptor is. Then we see how well the dream matched it. ALSO added for the WHERE component: the location of the dreamer (where they were when the dream occurred) can be assumed. See blue text for details.
Change 2 (08/22/2014): Added criteria for metaphoric connections. New section is in red.
