Podcast: Dreamy Audio
Episode: 63
Title: Expensive Networking
Host: Lewis Moten
Release Date: Circa November 9, 2005 – May 5, 2006
Restored Date: January 18, 2026
Duration: 6:10
Channels: 1 (mono)
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
Encoding: MP3, VBR (~130 kbps)
File Size: 1.5 MB
Summary
The dream opens with the narrator’s father overseeing the construction of a house, where enormous, immovable plates are positioned by robots. The narrator searches for another robot to help stack them, briefly confusing objects by rhyme rather than function, before restoring order. As construction continues, the focus shifts to installing an elaborate server system—an immense, almost mythic computer meant to manage a network far larger than the situation seems to require.
The narrator and his brother visit the company responsible for the setup and learn that this costly, overengineered system ultimately does little more than allow remote access over the internet—something they already understand could be done simply and cheaply. The realization lands hard: their father’s dream and investment have been exploited. The dream ends on frustration and clarity, with anger directed not at technology itself, but at how expertise can be used to confuse and take advantage of trust.
Analysis
This dream reflects anxiety about misplaced trust, expertise, and guardianship. The father’s grand vision contrasts with the narrator’s technical clarity, highlighting fears of loved ones being misled. The oversized machines symbolize authority through complexity, while the anger marks a desire to protect against exploitation.
Related Dreams
This episode echoes #57 (trying to place systems correctly in spaces no longer under your control), #53 (being blocked by workplace tools and processes that should help but don’t), and #55 (searching endlessly for the “right” answer that never satisfies the gatekeeper). All explore competence versus control.
Similar Dreams in History
Nikola Tesla described dreams where vast machines revealed simple truths too late. Richard Feynman often wrote about recognizing unnecessary complexity masking basic principles. George Orwell recorded dreams of oversized systems enforcing power while doing very little of substance.
Transcript (auto-generated)
Up in Delray, my dad was building a house. And there were these, um, plates being laid out that were very heavy. So a lot of equipment was setting things up.
Because, uh, they were just too heavy for people to move around. And, um, I went to find another, uh, robot to move plates closer to the building in a pile. And, uh, I found it. And I started telling it with the computer what it needed to do. So I started looking for the plates.
And I found a, uh, found something that rhymed. I forget what it was. I think it was like dustpan or something. But in the dream it just rhymed with plates. But, uh, you know, I told it, no, I went back to look for one of these plates.
And eventually did find them. And it moved them down closer to that other robot to get a one by one. And, uh, then eventually they were building these servers and such for a, for a, It just manages the network or something. There’s like a giant hard drive that takes care of it.
It was like the mean super computer that does everything. And my brother and I went out to the company that was setting it up for us. They were setting it up for my dad and we were talking about what exactly it was. We had to send them this small half dome that communicates to it. So we got to the company. We got the guy that was setting it up for us.
We’re in this board room of some kind. And we give a guy the small black half dome. It’s like a half cylinder. It’s about 10 inches high. It’s black. He takes it and hooks it up.
He brings us up online and sees that he has access to our hard drive. It actually seems like it’s a total system that’s overkill just for a pizza restaurant. My brother and I were like, okay, so what exactly does this thing do?
And the guys just try to give us a little fluff. We’re finally like, okay, how do I connect this thing? From home. Because he was connected to it from over the internet. And he started going to how he’d need some equipment and such. Then I look at my brother and I’m like, so all it says is just it connects to an existing network over the internet.
And lets me communicate to the network. It’s like yes. And I’m like, Jesus Christ. Because we spent or my dad had spent on his dream all this money. Thousands and thousands of dollars just so that we could connect up to it over the internet. But the thing is, my brother and I, we knew that we could simply do this with the stuff that comes with the operating systems in general. You don’t need all this heavy duty equipment to do that. But apparently these guys, they find people who don’t know much about this. Someone with a really great idea. Just it’s like they really took advantage of the situation. And I was just really, really upset about this.
