A device called Dormio makes it possible to “incubate” dreams through auditory stimuli. Experts warn of the future danger of dream marketing, in homes with more and more smart devices.
You plunge into a pleasant dream, everything around you is happiness and satisfaction. In that dream world, you find yourself enjoying an exquisite strawberry ice cream under the warm sun of a paradisiacal beach. The sweet and refreshing flavor glides over your tongue, awakening feelings of joy and well-being. How could you know it was an advertisement? Dystopia? Future of marketing?
An opinion piece signed by a team of dream experts warns that dream advertising could become a reality in the near future. According to a survey of 400 marketers in the US, 75% plan to implement dream advertising technologies by 2025.
“Dreams are real mechanisms that have biologically evolved to help us make critical decisions about how to lead our lives in the future.said Robert Stickgold, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, an expert in dream studies, and the paper’s lead author.
Although currently the methods to alter the content of dreams are very basic, progress has already been made in this field. For example, an MIT doctoral student used a device called a Dormio to “incubate” dreams in subjects using specific auditory stimuli.
In Haar’s published study of Dormio, he and his co-authors successfully used the system to make subjects dream of trees. However, these advances are far from reaching full dream advertising.
The possibility that the microphones present in our bedrooms are used to subtly initiate the dream publicity it raises ethical privacy concerns and could imply a deterioration in the quality of sleep. Though unlikely due to consent and privacy violations.
The thought of waking up to the sound of a drink being poured into a glass and a whispering voice mentioning a brand can be unsettling. Given this perspective, experts emphasize the need to take political measures and establish protection policies to prevent advertisers from manipulating our dreams.
The technology could be used in a number of beneficial fields
They also highlight that the same technologies that could be used for dream advertising could have noble applicationssuch as the treatment of nightmares, learning improvements and night therapies.
However, before exploring these possibilities, the authors consider it important that scientists and technologists continue to basic ethical standardssuch as obtaining consent, designing non-addictive tools and minimizing the impact on sleep quality.