lucid dreaming: really?

A few days ago I was discussing lucid dreaming -- that is, dreams in which you consciously control your actions -- with a few friends, and one of them (I think it was Emma) made the intriguing comment, "I think I had a lucid dream. But I might have just thought that I was in control." It's quite a subtle distinction, I'd say. I'm not sure we could actually tell the difference between believing we're in control and actually being in control. And in the language of theoretical physics we say if you can't tell, then it doesn't matter. What I find all the more attractive about this is that it's a perfect model for day-to-day conscious life. Do we just believe we have free will, or are we really in control? Like in the case with dreams, we can't differentiate between the two possibilities; yet the former seems more likely. Everything else we see in the universe is deterministic, so why not us?

sol

I read this in the letters section of Rolling Stone, so it's at least double hearsay (triple to you) and thus the provenience is not guaranteed. Nonetheless I found it noteworthy to hear Edison pontificate upon the subject of clean/renewable energy sources:

``You see, we should make use of the forces of nature and should obtain all our power in this way. Sunshine is a form of energy; wind and sea currents are manifestations of this energy. Do we make use of them? Oh no! We burn forests and coal like tenants burning down our front door for heating. We live like wild settlers and not as though these resources belong to us.'' T.A. Edison, 1916

I'm interested in the context in which Edison said/wrote this; he was a first-rate marketeer, and it's just as likely he was promoting some invention as genuinely expressing this sentiment. Also, note the critical error: while wind and sea currents are manifestations of solar energy, so are trees and, to a lesser extent, coal. Remind me, sometime, to explain my thoughts on trees.

lakto

I have discovered that milk (bovine; and whole -- `nonfat milk' is an oxymoron) makes a great energy drink for a quick boost. A glass of milk seems far more effective than anything else I can quickly muster to replenish drained energy after a long day in class.