Was it all designed? Researchers have long disputed the function of dreams: while the “Threat Simulation Theory” poses dreams as an evolutionary defense mechanism against threatening events that might take place in waking life, the “Social Simulation Theory” considers dreams rehearsals for waking social perceptions and interactions. The idea of dreams as simulation-generators underlies many theories, but the question of what dreams simulate remains up for debate. Cognitive neuropsychologist Antii Revonsuo has proposed the new paradigm of “World-simulation,” which suggests that dreams simulate the world rather than experiences.3 Our brains do not write a story for us and make us live through it, rather they design the world in which we have the experience, and we are set free in that world to have the experience. When we need an experience, whether to prepare for threats or social life, our brains create a world in which we are expected to have that experience. Those shiny apples on the tree were, in fact, designed, but your experience was born out of it. The method of our brains may be adapted when we are after creating experiences, but it can also help us when we want to prevent experiences.
12:30? The alarm clock must have been broken. Now you are late, unusually late, and the rest of the day will be torturous. Flash forward, you come back home late, feeling mad at the deviant alarm clock. Preventing this experience by designing a world in which this experience does not take place seems easy: fix the clock. But what if the clock keeps getting broken, as it is the case with the clocks inside of our heads? This is called crime. So far, we haven't been able to prevent crime effectively: “Crime permeates our social fabric. It always has because we are all deviant and deviance is an underpinning of criminality. Whether you believe people are born criminals or socialized to become so, a constant among the tremor of our tumultuous society exists the fear of victimization by the criminal element. Even more disturbing exists the idea that any one of us—at any time—can cross the line and become ‘criminal.’1 Meanwhile, the justice system locks criminals away with the view that you are either a criminal or not. Discentive power of incarceration is great; nobody
You wake up, “what a dream!” you say to yourself and check the clock. You still have half an hour, good. After a slowpaced breakfast, you grab your phone. © 2020, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.
THE TRIPLE HELIX Spring 2020
37
