CREATIVE ADVENTURES — 52

Imagine You Can Design and Manipulate The Dreams of Others

Would You Use This Superpower? How?

Remember the movie “Inception”? Leonardo DiCaprio and his gang were using drugs and psychological profiling to trigger a specific dream in their target. They were effectively designing and manipulating fascinating dream worlds.

In this exercise, you will imagine that you have a similar superpower. You can design and manipulate the dreams of others.

Please respond to the following prompts:

1. Would you use this superpower? Why or why not?
2. Let’s imagine that you said ‘yes’. How would you use your ability to manipulate dream worlds? Whose dreams would you hack into? What would be your goal? Why?
3. Write a science fiction story where you use this superpower to inspire people towards realizing their potential and making a better world.
4. Write a thriller story where your superpower becomes very dangerous and leads to unexpected consequences.
5. Think of 10 ways that you can use this power for good. You will induce lucid dreaming in chosen people. How will you help these people? Will you help them solve complex problems? Will you increase their confidence? Will you enable their creativity? Feel free to use Deirdre Barrett’s book titled The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving — and How You Can or similar books for inspiration.
6. Write a thriller story where you use this superpower to induce bad dreams (i.e. nightmares, scares, disgust, etc.) to deter a serial killer. Alternatively, you can induce positive and healing dreams if you believe these will prevent the person from killing others. How do you use your power? What happens next?
7. Imagine your future career as a dream designer. Imagine how your job would look like on a daily basis. Describe your one day.
8. Let’s go deeper with your job as a dream designer. How do you design dreams? Create possible scenarios or alternatives. Perhaps you are using Neuralink or other brain-machine interfaces augmented by artificial intelligence. How would you design powerful dreams? How would you make the world a better place using this technology and power? For example, would you cure depression by inducing positive dreams powered by psychedelics? What would be the top challenges and risks that you would face in this job? How would you tackle these challenges?
9. Imagine that the year is 2085. You are an inventor, designer, and engineer who is at the top of their game and uses the latest technologies of VR, AR, gaming, and the metaverse. You use these new technologies to design new lives, avatars, and environments for individuals who wish to escape reality. One of the latest technologies uses Imagineering to design advanced dreams for volunteers. You are also charged with ensuring the security and mental wellbeing of volunteers who participate in the latest experiment. Write a thriller science fiction story where things go wrong and volunteers are trapped in their dreams. You can write a story that resembles a Black Mirror episode.

Fahri Karakas is the author of the Self-making Studio. You can explore more here.