We forget our dreams quickly – most of our dreams are forgotten by the time we wake up in the morning and continue with our daily schedules. Even if we remember some dreams, they are not remembered in vivid detail. At most, we remember en emotional event or two from a dream after a few hours.
However, one of my dreams (this one from a couple of nights ago) has a strong impression in my memory and I remember the entire conversation as though I watched a HD movie while I was sleeping. Here is the dream:
I am standing near the entrance of a mall, checking my social networking feeds from Twitter and Facebook. No rush in the mall and people are randomly walking in and out from that entrance. From my peripheral view, I notice a gentleman (who looks like an agent from Matrix and is with a very friendly disposition) walking to me, holding a gadget in his palm. I got curious as he approached me.
Mr. Agent: “Hi, I work for a Government Agency. We are running a pilot.”
[ My curiosity increases. ]
Mr. Agent: “We need your help”
[ My curiosity turns to keen interest ]
Mr. Agent: “Our automation systems recognized you, but we still want to double-check. Can you verify if this is your email id?”
[ He moves next to me and shows the gadget in his palm. The gadget looks like an extended mini pad. It has a screen showing my primary email id, with a couple of characters replaced with rectangles.
Knowing that it is my email id I did an affirmative nod. The Agent smiled when I started my nod and tapped on the pad. Now the rectangles are replaced with their respective characters from my email id. With a shocked expression, I asked him: ]
Me: “How did you recognize me?”
Mr. Agent: “We installed cameras and sensors that can scan. Your face and your teeth signatures are captured and they matched with our database.”
[ Keen interest transformed to excitement at this point. I was about to ask Mr. Agent if there is an extended version of this pilot in which I can participate. ]
That’s when I woke up.
With data capturing and analysis happening around us every minute, the key aspects of this dream (scan, recognition, correlation to other personal data) might be a reality, who knows?
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.
Potter: “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
Dumbledore: “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?â€
From the post title I expected ‘dream dejavu’ feelings… but this took a tech turn 🙂