After reading Pascal speak on dreams, I became very interested in his explanation and began to link it with some of society's modern technology.
He states that
" If an artisan were sure to dream every night for twelve hours' duration that he was a king I believe he would be almost as happy as a king who should dream every night that he was an artisan" (p.440)
First off, I hope he used twelve hours of sleeping simply so they would each spend half of their day dreaming of living a lifestyle like the other person. I'm sure this is a given, but I couldn't help but critique someone for sleeping twelve hours every day. He then moves on to say that no person apart from faith, can truly decide if he is asleep or awake. We are aware of the passage of time in each nearly as much as we are when we are awake. I have my doubts to this as many of my dreams lack basic senses, rationality, and are sometimes unintelligible. However, he then brings up perhaps the most interesting thing I read.
"And who doubts that, if we dreamed in company, and the dreams chanced to agree, which is common enough, and we were always alone when awake, we should believe that matters were reversed?"
I may be wrong, but I do not think that it is common enough for people to have synchronized dreams. Actually, when he said this, I completely stopped thinking about dreams. Call me a nerd, but my mind went straight to video games. The idea of becoming immersed in a virtual experience with friends is so much stronger than a dream. Your senses are alert and in many cases you are able to exercise them completely, well, except smell and taste. Nonetheless this experience is a true experience in a virtual setting. It becomes immersive, and when I played video games most I find myself thinking about experiences within the game while I am going through my daily schedule in life. Especially role playing games, where I took on a fictional role and operated in a very interesting and immersive, but fictional world. The ability to escape reality is a serious appeal, and a clear one that attracts many gamers. This isn't meant to criticize games or point them out, I could clearly use any source of media to be a medium that could immerse us and leave us disconnected with reality. Even books or any source of information can ensnare the mind of an individual. I just thought this was so interesting.
I commented on the posts of Anna Grace and Eliza.
He states that
" If an artisan were sure to dream every night for twelve hours' duration that he was a king I believe he would be almost as happy as a king who should dream every night that he was an artisan" (p.440)
First off, I hope he used twelve hours of sleeping simply so they would each spend half of their day dreaming of living a lifestyle like the other person. I'm sure this is a given, but I couldn't help but critique someone for sleeping twelve hours every day. He then moves on to say that no person apart from faith, can truly decide if he is asleep or awake. We are aware of the passage of time in each nearly as much as we are when we are awake. I have my doubts to this as many of my dreams lack basic senses, rationality, and are sometimes unintelligible. However, he then brings up perhaps the most interesting thing I read.
"And who doubts that, if we dreamed in company, and the dreams chanced to agree, which is common enough, and we were always alone when awake, we should believe that matters were reversed?"
I may be wrong, but I do not think that it is common enough for people to have synchronized dreams. Actually, when he said this, I completely stopped thinking about dreams. Call me a nerd, but my mind went straight to video games. The idea of becoming immersed in a virtual experience with friends is so much stronger than a dream. Your senses are alert and in many cases you are able to exercise them completely, well, except smell and taste. Nonetheless this experience is a true experience in a virtual setting. It becomes immersive, and when I played video games most I find myself thinking about experiences within the game while I am going through my daily schedule in life. Especially role playing games, where I took on a fictional role and operated in a very interesting and immersive, but fictional world. The ability to escape reality is a serious appeal, and a clear one that attracts many gamers. This isn't meant to criticize games or point them out, I could clearly use any source of media to be a medium that could immerse us and leave us disconnected with reality. Even books or any source of information can ensnare the mind of an individual. I just thought this was so interesting.
I commented on the posts of Anna Grace and Eliza.
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