After I published my previous little thing about dreaming, I opened an e-mail from Harper’s, about what’s coming up in the next issue.
Here’s one thing:
Why do we dream? Despite some intriguing speculation, scientists have yet to come up with a satisfying explanation, so a team of researchers at MIT are asking a new question: How can we shape our dreams? To facilitate “dream incubation”—engineering dreams according to words or images chosen by the dreamer—they have developed the Dormio, a wearable device that connects to a website where users can record a voice message that will play as they begin to fall asleep. In “Night Shifts,” Michael W. Clune participates in the team’s experiments and explores the history of dream research to consider the implications and applications of dream engineering—both positive and dystopian.
How timely! But you know, I think I managed this shaping my dreams by myself.