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Message no. 1
From: Philippe Garneau <aaa302@*****.ULAVAL.CA>
Subject: DreamTime (somewhat long)
Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 18:25:29 -0400
S
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!

It's almost certain i'm not the first person to thing of this, but in
waking up this morning I wondered about dreaming and simsense (fitting,
isn't it?).

With many people equipped with cyberware such as simsense recording
rigs, It's just a matter of time that one think of recording their sense
accounts of their entire night's sleep (provided they can find that much MPs
on a computer nearby and can connect their simsense rig to it).

This would almost certainly record the dreams of the person, even if
he/she's don't remember them. Given some editing to make the dream
experience fit in a correct time frame, one could be able to make their
dreams available for others to experience, or to watch back themselves.

Of course, this can have some applications:

- a very expensive analytic method for psychanalysis.
- an entirely new entertainment industry.
- a new angle for Big Brother.

Here's an adventure idea based on the theme of simsense recordings of
dreams. Do not hesitate to send me comments (on the list or privately).

A dreaming circle.

A group of successful simsense actors and close friends gathers
periodically to share dreams they had and that they recorded on simsense
full-X format. Now their corps employers don't know about this stuff, and
the stars really like it that way, because they don't want to see the
precious little privacy they've have left sold to the hungry crowds.

Now during an hostile extraction attempt of a simsense Star that is a
member of the Dreaming Circle, a mage does a mind probe on his/her and
discover accidentally the existence of the Circle. The mage reveal the
secret to his employer for extra nuyen. The runners Mr. Johnson soon hire
them again, this time to raid the Dreaming Circle's quarters and steal the
celebrities dreams. However, the extracted star manages to send a warning to
her fellow members and they move the recordings to an alternate location.
They also hire another group of runners to defeat the first group, find out
who is their employers, and eliminate him to protect the secret. Of
course, the runners would be paid (or killed) to keep their own mouths
shut...

Note: this is not related to the story above, but other people with
'sense rigs may have begun to sell at a small level recordings of their
dreams. After all, we know that some people dream more than others (or
remember more their dreams than others), and some things like essence loss
can surely cause decreased dreaming. So I think that once the product is
revealed, there would be a demand for this Dream product. Anyway, these
transactions may have been done person-to-person, or via the Matrix
(persona-to-persona). However, the crime syndicates soon find out about
that very profitable market, and attempt to "unionize" the dreamers under
their direction. Or course, most of the dreamers want nothing of the sort,
and would want protection against the Mobs, so they could ask the runners
for help. Alternatively, the Corps can fill the same role as the Mobs on
this one, or be competitor to them.

Anyway, enjoy! And send/post comments!

_____________________________________________________
Philippe Garneau, a.k.a Filou
Bachelier en Sciences, Microbiologie

Global Ebola? Much too icky!
Aliens zapping Washington? Get Real!
Asteroid wiping us out? Naaah!
Terrorist nuke in New York? Now that Seinfeld's gone, why bother?

I think the Y2K bug will do nicely as a Millenium catastrophe. do you?
Message no. 2
From: Max Rible <slothman@*********.ORG>
Subject: Re: DreamTime (somewhat long)
Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 14:37:57 -0800
At 18:25 5/20/98 -0400, Philippe Garneau insinuated:
>S
>p
>o
>i
>l
>e
>r
>
>s
>p
>a
>c
>e
>:
>
>f
>o
>r
>
>G
>M
>'
>s
>
>e
>y
>e
>s
>
>o
>n
>l
>y
>!
>
> With many people equipped with cyberware such as simsense recording
>rigs, It's just a matter of time that one think of recording their sense
>accounts of their entire night's sleep (provided they can find that much MPs
>on a computer nearby and can connect their simsense rig to it).
>
> This would almost certainly record the dreams of the person, even if
>he/she's don't remember them.

This is only if you rule that dreams show up at the sensory level at
which you record simsense. I'm fairly sure that if you could record
dreams, you could record any piece of visual imagination-- you could
have cameras that record things seen only in the mind's eye! I would
rule that a simsense recording of someone dreaming would get the
physical sensations of lying there with your eyes closed and the
emotional states from the dream, but the actual imagery would be
absent.

--
%% Max Rible %% slothman@*****.com %% http://www.amurgsval.org/~slothman/ %%
%% "Ham is good... Glowing *tattooed* ham is *bad*!" - the Tick %%
Message no. 3
From: "Ubiratan P. Alberton" <ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR>
Subject: Re: DreamTime (somewhat long)
Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 21:29:51 -0300
Max Rible escreveu:
>
>
> This is only if you rule that dreams show up at the sensory level at
> which you record simsense. I'm fairly sure that if you could record
> dreams, you could record any piece of visual imagination-- you could
> have cameras that record things seen only in the mind's eye! I would
> rule that a simsense recording of someone dreaming would get the
> physical sensations of lying there with your eyes closed and the
> emotional states from the dream, but the actual imagery would be
> absent.
>


Usual simsense doesn't even get emotions, only sensory input (sight,
hearing, taste, smell and touch). The equipment to "record" the chemical
changes in the brain must be really illegal...

Ubiratan
Message no. 4
From: Nexx3 <Nexx3@***.COM>
Subject: Re: DreamTime (somewhat long)
Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 23:02:38 EDT
In a message dated 98-05-20 18:26:41 EDT, you write:

<< With many people equipped with cyberware such as simsense recording
rigs, It's just a matter of time that one think of recording their sense
accounts of their entire night's sleep (provided they can find that much MPs
on a computer nearby and can connect their simsense rig to it). >>

The problem with this theory is that dreams aren't really the sequential
events you experience every night... they're random firings of you brain,
which other parts of your brain attempt to interpret, thus causing the stories
you experience. That's part of why dreams are considered so important in
analysis: the interpretting is done in part by the parts of the brain we
normally can't access, so they represent the collated information combined
with things that slip under your a priori thoughts.

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about DreamTime (somewhat long), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.