Author C. B. Dixon
Books. Life. Wonder.
Plugged In
I have all these ideas that need to be placed somewhere outside of the pink mass between my ears. They rush into my mental space to frolic around with their intricate arms in a wild dance. They would spin as they promise bold adventure. A promise of a dark world filled with monsters and epic battles of magic with a bloody clash of steel. And then, in a blink, the idea would fade as I put my fingers to the keyboard to release it into the world.
I do wonder about things I can never know. These ideas must come up into other people’s thoughts. A flash of epic creativity that was meant only for them. These ideas that other people create must be quite strange and implausible. I always thought a computer that could link into dreams, even daydreams, could be the next form of our entertainment. Think of how intense it would be to live another person’s nightmare. You would feel the chill in the room brush against your skin. Your ears would twitch as you hear every creak in the house. Your anxious eyes dart around as you slap the walls begging the light switch to appear. The groan from the adjacent room gargled as a heavy thud lifts the floor beneath you. A shudder shakes your body as your eyes search the darkened room to find two ghastly figures tucked into the corner. Their murky hollow eyes thin before they lunge forward with a screech that pierces the air.
Oh, the thrill of it.
And yet, it would be terrifying in another way. What if the machine broke? This computer that is pumping this simulation into your brain… just gets a glitch. The technical support would say, “Oh, it’s nothing. Happens all the time.” And there you are on the phone watching your friend or family member still attached to this failed appliance flail about the floor. “Don’t unplug them. I will talk you through the restart,” the tech says as you hold the cord in your hand that was happily plugged into the wall. “I see, you already unplugged them. I am going to assume that you didn’t read the manual. Or did you?” You fill the tech in with a monologue that suggests that people never read the damn two-thousand-page book that comes with every machine. “Ah, well since you didn’t read it. I will let you know that your friend will have to stay alive in the dreamscape. I have dispatched an ambulance for you. If they die inside the reenactment then they might experience some physical harm. Even if we safely reboot them, they must be seen by a medical professional immediately. I will go over everything else later. Let’s restart the machine and go from there.”
Why did I talk them into getting plugged in? If they die…would it be manslaughter?
See, things like the above would be awesome and not awesome. They have their place in our ideas and should stay as imagination. I have drawn pictures of what this computer would look like. It would be like VR in most ways but attach to the nervous system to give real feed back. It would also be a downloaded copy of a real persons dream or a downloaded copy of your very own dream. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to watch your dreams? I have written a small schematic on how it would be possible. Scientists have been able to turn off the body’s stillness in sleep to have animals sleepwalk. I am unsure if we have the technology at the moment to have a video representation of our own or another person’s dream/nightmare. I do see this being discussed before I die of old age. We are not that far off when it comes to how fast our technology is advancing.
(I am both appalled and fascinated by this study. I will not link it, but you can find it on YouTube if you are interested. It is an incredibly sad and hard to watch study.)
The ideas that come to mind are not always ones that I would share in a polite conversation. If anyone has read my book Wicked Soul Ascension knows, the light is always dimmed in my brain. I see monsters and schemes everywhere. Every activity I do could be twisted into a scene in one of my books. I love to think that there is a little thrill fan in each one of us. One that believes that turning the lights on at night might not be the best answer when we are afraid. Think about it… do you really want to see the face of our monster? Are you ready to face it?
What are some of the bizarre ideas you have? Have you ever thought about having a digital copy of your dreams? Let me know in the comments.
Author C. B. Dixon 