CSB #4: the science in INCEPTION

Definitions:

Dream - A series of mental images, thoughts and sensations that occur in a person's mind during sleep.

Lucid Dreaming - A lucid dream occurs when one is conscious enough to recognize that he/she is in a dream but at the same time still be dreaming. When lucid dreaming, the sleeper can manipulate and participate in what is occurring in the dream.

Inception [as used in the movie] - The planting of an idea in one's mind; the introduction of an idea from an outside source (possibly done secretly)

REM Dreaming - REM Dreams have more emotion and aggression and are more story-like than non-REM dreams, which often involve friendly and social interactions.

short summary of the movie:

The main character in Christopher Nolan's "Inception" is Dom Cobb, a world class criminal. However, Cobb doesn't steal things. He steals ideas directly from people's minds.

Cobb, with the the help of a team of sleep experts, works his way into people's subconscious when they are sleeping and steals their ideas.

Cobb is given a last assignment that could possibly clear his name and allow him to return to his children. This time, he is assigned not to steal an idea from someone's mind, but to plant one.

Discussion:

During the movie, many "facts" about dreams are used.

I am going to pull up a couple of them and find out if they are fact or fiction.

Q1: Do dreams follow the laws of physics?

A1: No, they don't have to. In REM Dreams, position sense gets turned off and we can basically do anything, even if it's against the laws of physics. For example, many people fly in their dreams.

Q2: Is it possible to have a dream within a dream?

A2: Yes. In fact, it's not uncommon for people to dream of themselves inside another dream.

Q3: Could someone enter your dream and control it?

Q3: No (not yet at least :P).

HOWEVER, one can control and take over their own dream. This is called lucid dreaming (defined in definitions)

Q4: Is time altered in our dreams like portrayed in the movie?

A4: In Inception, dream time goes a lot slower than real time. For example, five minutes of real time is one hour of dream time.

There is actually not enough evidence to answer this question yet. Although there is some evidence that when lucid dreaming, the perception of time is similar to that when the sleeper is awake.

For all we know, the perception of time could be created by the brain itself (confusing, right?)

Questions -

1. Will a machine ever be invented like the one in Inception where someone can enter someone else's dream?

2. Is time in the dream world different than time in the real world?

Citations -

Movie: Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Bros, 2010. Film.

Picture: http://xenlogic.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/inception-explained/

Cobb: For this to work, we'd have to buy off the pilots...
Arthur: And we'd have to buy off the flight attendants...

Saito: I bought the airline. It seemed neater.