Of butterflies and men
Yesterday I read the book "Scary Monsters and Super Freaks"
by Mike Sager. The books a collection of some of his articles published
in magazines such as GQ and Rolling Stone. Each article is somehow
related to "sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and murder", as the longer
explanatory title promises. The book starts from John Holmes and the
Wonderland murders and then goes on to people such as Gary Condit,
Veronica Guerin, Rob Lowe and his celebrity sex video, and Carlos
Castaneda.
One of the articles was about a man who was given a life sentence for drugs at the age of eighteen. Ten years later the conviction was overturned and he was released. The article was about prison life, and I noticed one casual sentence that said that the main character no longer beats off, since the wet dreams are much better, more like you really are there. This, in turn, led me to philosophical ponderings about lucid dreaming, which sounds like it should be researched more, since it would be like you had your own personal holodeck. Once again, why change the external reality so that it will change your brains in a pleasant way, if you could just make this change in your brains directly?
I once read something from Andrew Vachss, can't remember if it was fact or fiction (either case, I recommend his speech "Serious, Violent, and Habitual Juvenile Offenders"), about some guy in prison who in all apparent seriousness believed that in his sleep he transported to live on an another planet. He could describe the culture and life on this planet in a very detailed level, and not once could he be made to contradict his story, no matter how much the other prisoners tried to interrogate him and trick him. Then, a new medication that he was given took away these dreams, which made him pretty angry and violent towards other prisoners. After some lawyering, the medication was taken away and he went happily back to his dreamworld, bothering no-one.
There is also a short story by Ray Bradbury in similar vein. I don't remember its title right now, but the story is about a prison colony in Mars where a new prisoner turns out to be able to telepathically give other people extremely realistic full-sensory hallucinations. The other prisoners each want him all to themselves, and in the end end up fighting and accidentally killing him.
Thought experiment: suppose that you could have unlimited lucid dreaming that would feel just like holodeck or The Matrix and be as indistinguishable from real world, but the price of this would be that you had to live your waking hours in prison. Would you take it?
Suppose then that you could have a holodeck at your free disposal during your waking hours. However, the price of this would be that every night, you would have a totally realistic dream about being in prison. Would you take it?
One of the articles was about a man who was given a life sentence for drugs at the age of eighteen. Ten years later the conviction was overturned and he was released. The article was about prison life, and I noticed one casual sentence that said that the main character no longer beats off, since the wet dreams are much better, more like you really are there. This, in turn, led me to philosophical ponderings about lucid dreaming, which sounds like it should be researched more, since it would be like you had your own personal holodeck. Once again, why change the external reality so that it will change your brains in a pleasant way, if you could just make this change in your brains directly?
I once read something from Andrew Vachss, can't remember if it was fact or fiction (either case, I recommend his speech "Serious, Violent, and Habitual Juvenile Offenders"), about some guy in prison who in all apparent seriousness believed that in his sleep he transported to live on an another planet. He could describe the culture and life on this planet in a very detailed level, and not once could he be made to contradict his story, no matter how much the other prisoners tried to interrogate him and trick him. Then, a new medication that he was given took away these dreams, which made him pretty angry and violent towards other prisoners. After some lawyering, the medication was taken away and he went happily back to his dreamworld, bothering no-one.
There is also a short story by Ray Bradbury in similar vein. I don't remember its title right now, but the story is about a prison colony in Mars where a new prisoner turns out to be able to telepathically give other people extremely realistic full-sensory hallucinations. The other prisoners each want him all to themselves, and in the end end up fighting and accidentally killing him.
Thought experiment: suppose that you could have unlimited lucid dreaming that would feel just like holodeck or The Matrix and be as indistinguishable from real world, but the price of this would be that you had to live your waking hours in prison. Would you take it?
Suppose then that you could have a holodeck at your free disposal during your waking hours. However, the price of this would be that every night, you would have a totally realistic dream about being in prison. Would you take it?
Comments