July 30, 1958: Just awoke from a dream. Had to write it down. Was in an office much like my own, but some years in the future, with the addition of several large, unfamiliar machines. I worked with the machines as if I was already familiar with them. The largest was a roughly rectangular apparatus the size of a large stove. The top hinged open, and under it was glass. I placed a document on the glass, pressed a button, and an exact copy of the document came out of a slot on the machine’s side. Another machine sat on top of a desk, the size and shape of a large book. It too had a glass plate under a hinged opening, upon which I placed a sheet of paper, then pressed some buttons. But it didn’t issue a second copy of the paper. I don’t know what it did. The final apparatus had a slot in its top for inserting a document. I somehow knew, as one does in dreams, that an exact copy of the document would then emerge somewhere miles (or even thousands of miles) away.

Suddenly, everything around me shimmered and spun, and I felt myself thrown even further into the future, without moving from my spot in the office. Now the three large machines were gone, replaced by one. I went to it as if it was an old friend. A name popped into my head, unbidden: the HP Officejet Pro L7680 Color All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier. It performed all the same tasks I had carried out on the other machines. Then President Eisenhower appeared, wearing only a loincloth, and hoisting a platter of deep-fried, unidentified cuts of meat. “God made a mistake,” Ike said to me. “Eat the mistake. Eat the mistake.” I turned without thinking and there were my parents, only they were naked and they had tape over their mouths. I could see their thoughts and I knew we were all connected, like an the Ethernet network. I turned back to the president and took his meat in my mouth. I woke up with the first bite.

Must remember to ask Dr. Hewlett what this all means.

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