For several years I have been inspired and guided by a vision certainly idealist of the technological future in the study of dreams:
One day, everyone will have an easy way and private to enter his dreams in a collective database all can access and study.
If it is possible, if there is a massive database, we could learn as much about the dreams, but also consciousness, culture and the evolution of our species. The work that I've been doing to develop sleep and dream of database (SDDb) aims to lay some initial scientific basis for the day when this vision of a universal dream portal and the file becomes a reality.
I've recently become involved as a consultant with shadow, a company founded by Hunter Lee Soik to develop an iOS for dreams recording application and explore its meanings. Work with the shadow has made it clear that the technology to create a database of the universal dream is emerging very rapidly.
That is good, right?
In the light of the latest news on Government and corporate abuses of data mining, it may seem a risky proposal to share the dreams in an online forum. If dreams are so valuable and significant as researchers as they tell me that they are, perhaps people should be more, not less, careful to introduce them in a public database. The intimate personal details of dreams that people naturally reluctant to share them in any environment where they do not feel a high degree of trust and confidence.
In the development of the SDDb and shadow work I have tried to respond to these concerns by putting 1) the practical measures we can take to protect the privacy of individuals and 2) the benefits of becoming a participant in a database on a large scale.
With respect to privacy, the participants can set the standard by altering or deleting any identifiable information staff (such as names of people and places) in its sleep. Participants can also exclude any content that simply do not feel comfortable sharing. Mood people be so forthcoming as possible, but I always let them know is your decision about how much to share.
Although these editorial revisions add a little noise to the system, can greatly decrease the chances of someone who wants to remain anonymous could be identified by their dreams.
In addition, the database host must make every effort to ensure the privacy of its users, the safety of your identification and information free access to their own data, which can retrieve and delete from the database at any time. The SDDb is making, and shadow has promised to do so, as well.
It is important to offer the option of opting out for participants wishing to use the database analytical tools but don't want to publicly share their dreams. It is the highest position in privacy, and of course wither database for utter futility if everyone adopted. Before people choose them ask you to consider the idea that to benefit from the Commons, it is necessary to contribute to the common good. The data base will be more accurate and useful for you and all other participants if you add your voice to the collection.
If the privacy protection as the co-responsibility of the participant and the host of the database is taken, risks do not disappear, but shrink to a size that allows you to balance potential mouth.
These potentials are started with a huge increase in awareness for the participants, who obtained unprecedented ability to see how they compare your individual sleep patterns patterns on a large scale of other groups of people. None of this has always existed, but once it does I believe that many people will be attracted by it as a unique and attractive source of self-knowledge.
The benefits extend beyond the personal points of view. A database of the dream of the scale that we are debating could serve as a kind of social barometer, measuring collective reactions to events team. We already know that that dream of people vividly in reaction to the turbulent social conditions of war, elections, natural disasters, attacks and deaths of celebrities. A large and sophisticated database could allow us to observe in real time the emotional impact of these and other public events in the dreams of the people.
Apart from that, give us a new appreciation of the astonishing complexity of the human race and the wide variations in how people live. For example, it showed us that large numbers of people live in conditions of desperate suffering, in the modern world. A universal database of dreams filled with nightmares of poverty, trauma, abuse and neglect. More widespread awareness of what it is to experience those harrowing dreams could be a powerful lever to promote positive social change.
This database of the future could also give us a new appreciation of the "ordinary Mystic' among us, people whose strange dreams connect with dimensions of hiper-creativo of the imagination. As a psychologist of religion I have always struck by the parallel between mystical experiences in religious history and certain types of dreams of contemporary people, dreams of magic and mystery and esoteric symbolism. My feeling is that more people have this type of dreams is commonly recognized. A database large scale could open eyes to the surprising prevalence of phenomena of mystical dream among the general population.
The potential risks of these technologies are real, but so are the potential benefits. The risks are limited and manageable; the benefits could change the world.
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