I was in some kind of store where I could purchase VR 3-D models that were animated. It let you look at and hold the models for a limited time (mine were of construction tractors) and then it would kick you out of the previewing room. My preview time was running out, and I was being pushed out of the room and began falling down toward the floor of something.
Rather than be afraid, I decided to do my best to land safely. I was on the ground floor of some kind of tall building, and I decided to yell out for help.
me: "Help! Take me to customer service."To my surprise I started flying up into the air. The grayish columnar building I was in gave way to another building that looked more like a conventional set of apartments. As I approached walls and structures I just floated right through them, and I was deposited into an office. A few people were around, but I was at the desk of a particular woman.
me: "How is it that I can just go through these walls?"her: "Because you're free right now. And I mean free as in...not free."
(Note: She was making some kind of joke that I didn't really understand, but that I interpreted to say that I was not a paying customer of her business, and thus I was a second-class citizen in terms of how I was treated and what I was allowed to do.)
me: "What's happening? I'm from the year 2000. Where am I, what is this?"woman: "Time isn't really...Look, you're in the same place you always are, which is the omniverse. And you're going through a neurofissure reconstruction right now."
(Note: I made up the word neurofissure here because I can't remember the one she said, but it sounded kind of like that. Dealt with brains.)
me: "I don't know what that is. Can you explain? Actually, can you show me something I can take back and use as proof of having been here?"An office worker passing by stopped and put in his two cents.
office worker: "What would you do with your day tomorrow if you had it?"me: "I'd write it down. Go to a restaurant with a cute girl at some point. Be happier because the world would listen to me 'cause I'm provably not insane."
woman: "Cute girls aren't that interesting."
me: "Well *I* like them, but it's really just aesthetics. And that wasn't the point, I just meant to say that my needs are modest and I really am just looking for validation. I need you to show me something."
A video showing a magnet with a configuration of holes in it flashed before my eyes. It looked like a cube built out of several layers of material.
woman: "I can show you how to make a zero-pole-magnet. And NO, not the dumb way. Actually it's already been invented and the inventor isn't doing anything with it...you can look him up, his name is..."She said some name here I forget.
me: "Names never work, can you show me how it's made?"woman: "Really you should just look up the paper. Though you're only 25, so it's not surprising it's tough for me to understand."
(Note: I didn't correct her on my age. Only now do I notice that naming the year as 2000 might have thrown off an age estimate. Had it really been the year 2000, that would have been correct.)
me: "I think I deserve some slack, considering that I am able to achieve basic dialogue while asleep."I didn't get any more information before I rather suddenly woke up.
(Note: Apparently a torus is already a zero-pole magnet, but may be the "dumb way" since there's no strong field on the outside, thus it wouldn't stick to a refrigerator. I sparked this discussion on Usenet which seemed to suggest there's not a good way to build a strong magnet with no external poles.)
