Musing: The Ultimate Gaming Machine – Your Mind

Consumers spend millions of dollars each year on gaming consoles and PC's. However, the ultimate gaming experience may be found between their ears instead of inside computer cases. ABC News reported the the phenomena of lucid dreaming where you control what happens during your dreams.

For most of us, dreams are not a controlled experience. We go through them without any idea how or why the images we see happen. While many of us can remember our dreams when we awake, it is usually a fuzzy recollection instead of a crystal clear high definition memory. However, during a lucid dream, you control the experience. Whether flying like Superman or having a relationship with a top model, the entire dream is limited only by your imagination.

How does one have a lucid dream? Well, apparently, the first step is recognizing that you're dreaming and taking control. It is almost like the "there is no spoon" moment in the Matrix where you realize that you can do whatever you want to do in your dream. While some people naturally have lucid dreams, some believe that anyone can learn to do it.

If lucid dreaming can truly be learned, then that would be bad news for the entertainment industry. Why watch movies or television when you can do whatever you want with characters and stories you make up in your mind? The gaming industry would also take a hit because even the most advanced games offered by the X-Box 360 or the Sony Playstation 3 can't hold a candle to the processing power of the brain. The only benefit that gaming could offer would be the ability to play with other people. However, if a way could be found to link the experiences of various lucid dreamers in some form of "multi-dreaming", then even that advantage would be taken away. Lucid dreaming provides an experience that is far better than any other entertainment medium, and it is absolutely free.

However, there are some downsides to a world where anyone can control their dreams. For example, national productivity could go down as people try to spend more time sleeping. Furthermore, there are moral questions that I touched on in a related blog post (that can be found here), but what do you do with an adult who lucid dreams about sex with children? If a husband has lucid dreams about orgies with various women, does that mean he is cheating on his wife? Or what about people who want to dream about torturing and brutally murdering people by the thousands? Could lucid dreaming be used to facilitate such perverse behavior? Conversely, can a demented person be treated by lucid dream therapy? Although, I would enjoy the ability to control my dreams, I don't know if I would enjoy living in a world where everyone can do the same.