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Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

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Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Futurama already did it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=Bs7EAzbzCNE

Maybe this is obvious, but are "Lightspeed Briefs" meant to be a pun on Fruit of the Loom (often abbreviated as FTL) and the scifi trope of FTL (faster than light) travel? That was my thought when I first saw this episode many years ago and I can't tell if I'm reaching or it's one of those things that's obvious to everyone else.

I'd say it's highly likely that is an intentional pun. Several of the show's writing staff hold advanced STEM degrees. One of them wrote a mathematical proof specifically to include as a plot device in one episode[1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_Benda

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't wait until we grasp that 'can'!='should' and figure out how to leave things up to nature.

Are humans not part of nature?

Sometimes it feels like corporate advertising/marketing very much are not. Honestly, most of corporate America feels like soulless money robots, very much anti-human.

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#43
AING folks have been doing lucid dreaming for years, their Russian forum at forum.aing.ru has 400k messages, so if you're interested in the topic, there's something you can learn from them. They have a number of attempts to make contacts with each other while lucid dreaming.

You can check out the English version for their stuff here: https://obe4u.com

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#44
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a device with app which can reliably determine if you are in REM: https://dreem.com/ . I have sleep apnea and bought it in order to keep track of the quality of my sleep.

But it doesn't send a signal so I don't think it will help the poster. Tracking REM sleep seems to be fairly easy. My Xiaomi wristband seems to reliably detect when I go into REM, even though the device is very cheap.

I've worked on detecting sleep stages from accelerometer data and it should work in theory (loss of muscle tone) but it doesn't in practice (still there are muscle twitches).

You need more modalities like heart rate, and a very sensitive heart rate monitor (the one in my Xiaomi/Amazfit is nowhere near the quality needed).

On the other hand, you can make quite good guesses based on the recurring pattern of REM sleep (in healthy subjects). Because REM sleep is quite prevalent in the later stages, your accuracy when guessing will be quite high.

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are humans not part of nature?

Sometimes it feels like corporate advertising/marketing very much are not. Honestly, most of corporate America feels like soulless money robots, very much anti-human.

Possibly your concept of “human” needs updating, since “corporate America” still consists of mostly humans.

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't wait until we grasp that 'can'!='should' and figure out how to leave things up to nature.

Are humans not part of nature?

You 'can' AutoTune and Grid the humanity right out of your music, 'should' you care to squeeze all the humanity out of your art.

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#47
post #2

Very difficult not to click on this headline.

I always read the comments here before the article. Usually the comments tell me everything I need to know and are more interesting. Most of the time I never end up clicking on the actual article because I've gotten enough info from the comments.

Same. It happens often that the comments repudiate or at least undermine the article's claim. By the time I've read a few I've lost interest in said article.

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#48
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always read the comments here before the article. Usually the comments tell me everything I need to know and are more interesting. Most of the time I never end up clicking on the actual article because I've gotten enough info from the comments.

Same. It happens often that the comments repudiate or at least undermine the article's claim. By the time I've read a few I've lost interest in said article.

You should read the articles. You'll find that a lot of the "repudiations" are less convincing, or at least less interesting.

(I didn't read this article.)

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#49
The subject stated that while he was receiving these questions, he was "dreaming that he was asleep in the lab".

Isn't is just as plausible that he wasn't lucid dreaming at all, and was instead in a half-asleep, half-awake stupor and responding to the questions from his awake consciousness?

It would be much more convincing if the subject were in a different landscape.

Re: Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

#50
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it feels like corporate advertising/marketing very much are not. Honestly, most of corporate America feels like soulless money robots, very much anti-human.

Possibly your concept of “human” needs updating, since “corporate America” still consists of mostly humans.

A cynicist's take would be that "corporate America", what with its laser-sharp focus on remorselessly exploiting everything and everyone for own profit, is actually very much human, as that is exactly what most humans have done since the very beginning.
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