In the most recent episode of Fringe (Season 2, Episode 5), “Dream Logic,” some lunatic found a way to implant a chip in his victims that transmitted their dreams to him before they could experience them. In effect, he stole their dreams. The unfortunate consequence was that the victims began to dream while they were awake — violent dreams that drove them to horrible murder.
The villain’s technology does not exist, of course, but it reminded me of something I’ve always wondered about: Would it someday be possible to record our dreams in the same way we record TV shows? Why not? Dreams are made up of electrical impulses that our sleeping brains “see” as pictures and “hear” as audio, so it seems that it might be possible. What would that be like? Dreams are often so disjointed and crazy that I wonder what it be like to view them on our TVs. Would it be wonderful… or horrific? What would be the effect of watching them outside our sleeping state? Would that drive us mad? So I ask you…