WE ALL SPEND ROUGHLY A THIRD OF OUR LIVES ASLEEP
ACCESSING DREAM WORLDS IN OUR SUBCONSCIOUS
THAT ARE LOST BY THE TIME WE WAKE UP.
BUT WHAT IF THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO BE?
JUDITH AMORES AND THE ENGINEERS, NEUROSCIENTISTS, AND DESIGNERS SHE WORKS WITH
AT MIT’S MEDIA LAB, DUBBED “THE DREAM TEAM,"
ARE WORKING TO DECODE THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND.
BUT THESE ARE NO ORDINARY SLEEP SCIENTISTS.
THEY DON’T JUST WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE
THAT SLEEP AND DREAMS CAN PLAY IN OUR LIVES;
THEY THINK WE CAN ACTUALLY TINKER WITH IT.
SLEEP HAS LONG BEEN RECOGNIZED NOT ONLY FOR BEING THERAPEUTIC,
BUT ALSO A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION.
VISIONARIES LIKE NIKOLA TESLA HAVE USED HYPNAGOGIA,
THE STATE OF BEING HALF ASLEEP,
TO DOZE THEIR WAY TO SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST ICONIC
ART AND INVENTIONS.
TO HARNESS THIS POTENTIAL, THE DREAM TEAM IS EXPLORING
THE WORLD OF ‘HUMAN-MACHINE SYMBIOSIS...’
THAT IS, DESIGNING TECHNOLOGY INTENDED FOR SEAMLESS INTEGRATION
INTO YOUR LIFE... AND YOUR BODY.
AND IF THAT SOUNDS STRAIGHT OUT OF SCI-FI…
IT IS.
THE DREAM TEAM RECENTLY DEBUTED DORMIO,
A GLOVE DESIGNED TO BOOST CREATIVITY.
DORMIO RECOGNIZES A HYPNAGOGIC STATE,
TRIGGERS A ROBOTIC VOICE TO READ YOU AN AUDIO CUE OR CREATIVE PROMPT
IN YOUR SLEEP, AND RECORDS YOUR MUMBLED RESPONSE.
BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR SLEEP STATES BEYOND HYPNAGOGIA?
THE DREAM TEAM IS DEVELOPING ADDITIONAL PROTOTYPES
TO ANALYZE EVEN MORE OF YOUR BODY’S BIOLOGICAL CUES.
A DEEP LEARNING COMPUTER MODEL THEN DECIPHERS THIS INFORMATION
TO DETERMINE WHAT STAGE OF SLEEP A PERSON IS IN.
TARGETING ONE OR MORE OF THESE SLEEP STAGES
COULD BE LIKE FINDING THE SECRET ENTRANCE TO YOUR OWN SUBCONSCIOUS.
THE CHALLENGE IS ACTUALLY OPENING THAT DOOR WITHOUT WAKING YOU UP.
SO THE DREAM TEAM IS ON THE HUNT FOR SIGNALS OR STIMULI THAT CAN DO JUST THAT.
AND JUDITH HAS SNIFFED OUT A PARTICULARLY USEFUL TOOL: OUR SENSE OF SMELL.
DURING YOUR SLEEP, THIS DEVICE COULD BE PROGRAMMED TO RELEASE A SCENT
FAMILIAR TO YOU, THAT YOU’VE ALREADY ASSOCIATED WITH A LEARNED BEHAVIOR
SUCH AS SMELLING ROSE WHILE YOU STUDY A NEW LANGUAGE.
THE TOYS AND TOOLS DREAMED UP IN THE MEDIA LAB ARE USUALLY
CONTROLLED BY A SIMPLE SMARTPHONE APP,
MAKING IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO GET THE RESULTS THEY WANT
WHETHER IT’S FACING YOUR FEARS IN A DREAM, BREAKING A BAD HABIT,
OR JUST GETTING A BETTER NIGHT’S REST.
AND FOR JUDITH AND HER TEAM, PAVING THE WAY FOR THAT MUTUAL SYMBIOSIS WITH TECHNOLOGY
IS WHAT THE FUTURE IS ALL ABOUT.
THIS EPISODE WAS PRESENTED BY THE U.S. AIR FORCE.
LEARN MORE AT AIRFORCE.COM.
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