Dreams have consistently captivated our interest as an enigmatic and intriguing aspect of the human experience. For centuries, individuals have been enthralled by the meaning behind their dreams, seeking ways to unravel their significance and comprehend the messages they convey. Now, with the advent of cutting-edge AI models capable of reconstructing visual experiences and inner voices from human brain activity, we stand on the brink of a groundbreaking era. Soon, we may be able to unlock and explore the dreamscapes our minds create while we slumber, opening up new possibilities for understanding our subconscious thoughts and desires. This revolutionary technological breakthrough promises to shed light on the hidden world of dreams, transforming how we perceive and engage with the mysteries of the human mind.
This results in two phases of novel applications. First, decoding brain activity during dreams into images and sounds opens up business opportunities in fields like healthcare, entertainment, and technology. Second, encoding brain activity leads to externally external lucid dreaming, where a computer dream interface controls the dreamer’s dreams.
Decoding
Decoding brain activities during dreaming into images and sounds can initiate the first phase of business opportunities related to dreams across various fields, such as healthcare, entertainment, and technology.
In the healthcare industry, this technology could lead to the development of new treatments for sleep disorders and other mental health conditions. By analyzing the brain activity of individuals during dreaming, doctors and other healthcare professionals may be able to gain insights into the neural mechanisms underlying sleep disorders, such as nightmares.
Based on Freud, illness prediction could also be made by analyzing dreams.
Decoding brain activities could also be employed in the entertainment industry to develop innovative forms of media, such as dream-based movies, tailored to an individual’s unique dream. By experiencing these movies, viewers may gain insights into their subconscious thoughts and desires.
A dream-sharing platform would be a new form of social media platform that allows users to share their dreams with others, similar to how they would share posts on other social media platforms. This kind of platform could have a variety of potential benefits. For instance, it could serve as a means of connecting individuals around the world who share common dreams. In the context of big data, it could also promote a greater understanding of the human psyche and the workings of the brain.
Encoding
This huge amount of data could further push the research and give us insight into how to manipulate dreams from the outside as done normally by an individual during lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a unique state of consciousness where the dreamer is aware they are dreaming while remaining in the dream state. This awareness allows the dreamer some level of control over their dream environment and events within it, such as manipulating the dream world, altering their appearance or abilities, or interacting with other dream characters. Developing external lucid dreaming techniques could enable us to adjust the experienced dream duration and manipulate objects and sounds, forming the foundation for advanced virtual reality experiences. This advancement would usher in a new era of immersive entertainment unparalleled by anything previously seen.
This advanced virtual reality could be employed in various applications. For example, by extending the experienced length of dreams, dreamers could utilize the newfound time to engage in virtual reality gaming or acquire new skills. Imagine not having studied for a math test scheduled for the next day. With this technology, you could configure the dream interface to immerse yourself in an 80-year-long learning experience (just to be sure ;)) within the first 10 minutes of your REM dream phase, followed by a Grand Theft Auto-style game lasting 250 years for the remainder of the night.
Conclusion
The key to achieving all of the previous applications lies in utilizing AI models to accurately interpret and manipulate the brain signals associated with dreaming. Decoding brain activity would allow us to convert dreams into rich visual and auditory content, and decoding brain activity would enable us to influence dreams externally, creating tailored virtual reality experiences that extend beyond traditional limitations.
So, instead of improving virtual reality headsets’ hardware, such as enhancing display systems, we should prioritize advancing the encoding and decoding of brain activities. By doing so, we can tap into the true potential of virtual reality experiences, and a potential Metaverse could be actual fun.