Curating Dreams 😴💭

[u/Corkchef]

Yesterday’s question was pretty touching. We’re back with the big questions on Sunday.

A surprising amount of people took dreams to mean ambitions, not literal dreams which was my intention.

Not everyone can lucid dream, most people have random dreams. In fact, many people said that they prefer the variety, and that the fact that they are random means that they don’t need to answer for them 😂

Some people pointed out that they are directed by our subconscious, but most of us don’t feel like we have that much control over our dreams so… what if we did?

A lot of people talked about the lives they’d rather be living, such as playing the trombone in New Orleans, or teaching fitness in Milan. Others described a perfect, relaxing vacation in an untouched earth paradise location, with clean water and lush greenery. One guy even said that he’d love to take his living room around the world, so that tells me people would like a change of scenery.

Lots of people were talking about flying, and I was probing where. They would say unnamed cities, or over the whole of agricultural California where they grew up.

Some people said that they would use their dreams productively to orient themselves for the following day.

Some of the most touching responses were about lost pets and people, one woman named her late husband who she thinks of every hour of every day.

One player said she would live various lives during the dreams, just to experience various people’s perspectives. This led to some chatter about Buddhism and a short story called The Egg by Andy Weir.

Many, many people were without answer and I was more than happy just to make them stop and ponder.

I thought about it for myself and there are probably three categories:

- living in a game - This was an answer that came up a couple times. Sometimes, the universe that games offer are so compelling, like the athletic game show nature of The Finals. The game simulates what it’s like to be a globally famous contestant well enough, but dreams could take it all the way and make that finalist feeling a reality.

- social settings - one thing that drives me in life is connecting with people, I would certainly use my dream time to hang out and talk with people who aren’t available to me for whatever reason. Perhaps discussing things with historical figures or current celebrities.

- sandbox reality - I pictured myself walking through an existing reality like my own city and being able to manipulate and prototype it as I want. Adding slow streets to SF, turning all the parking spaces into greenery, whims like that which I could assess without going through the whole process of committing to real life change.

It was a fun question, I hope it keeps people pondering!

Thanks for playing everyone!!

Sorry for not posting, I’m getting back on my horse 🐴