Dreams

What are dreams? I think I've been having quite a few vivid ones lately, the unusually vivid and memorable kind. Those kind of dreams mark a visage upon the dreamer that extends even into the waking world.
 
Maybe it's just the weariness getting to me. Maybe it's something else, an alteration in my brain chemistry. Maybe it's the stress I've been getting from people around me. The dreams are getting more and more vivid yet I can't seem to be able to recall them all too clearly. I might not be able to remember the exact stories of the dreams but individual scenes and moments of the dreams are burned into my memory like they actually happened to me. What is the difference between a memory of unmistakably realistic dream and memory of things that really happened to me? Only the physical consequences remain to help me make the distinction.
 
It's really interesting when you think about it. What part of the emergent system that is the human intellect drives such a phenomanon? What composes the fabric of the dreams and merge it within the framework of human memory? Will it be possible to engineer dreams in such a way to combine it directly with the everyday memory?
 
And just what drives people to keep on finding fascination within their dreams?
 
It would be interesting to be able to apply the framework of synthetic biology to the study and manipulation of the nervous system. A controlled study of dreams on cellular levels might even be beneficial to learning the characteristics of complex emergent systems...
 
Speaking of vivid memories and dreams, I need to ask if they are in any way related to imagination as well. From my experience people who have interesting dreams don't necessarily have vivid imagination, but then how many people with capacity for imagination do you see these days? A lot of trash-heap sentimentalities (meaning:without compassion) or vulgurities disguised as realism/realpolitik, but no imagination. Nothing that breaks out of the usual mould of cause and effect that direct the development of minds.
 
Yes. It's my sincierest wish that I might someday be able to have a genuine capacity for imagination, that is beyond the simple result of environment and time. At least I try, and I know that most people can't seem to be able to recognize how pedestrian and downtrodden many of their most imaginative ventures are, so I might be making a step toward having a genuine imagination... Just think about it. What kind of future would we build without a true capacity for imagination? Without the ability to imagine, the future will simply end up being a stale derivative of what we have at the moment. And that is one thing people interested in future tries to avoid, isn't it?
 
Or am I just a sarcastic clown now? The time will tell.
 
I'm thinking all the dreams might have to do with my longing for long journey to faraway places. The timing certain feels on the spot. It's funny. The will to find another future intermingled with memories of the past, all of them one and the same. I must be a lot more interesting guy than I give myself credit for.
 
At the moment I'm seriously considering taking the plunge and get some unique perspectives on biosciences and physics from other places around the world. The academy is still as fragmented by location as any other human endeavor, and from what I hear there are a lot of different advances and discussions going on in other parts of the world.
 
I might be able to come to a real decision in a month or two.
 
 
 
 
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