The prosaic apparatus of dreams
We have a neurological apparatus that is used during dreaming. Did it evolve for this purpose alone or does it serve some other purpose as well, a purpose for which its evolution might make more sense?I propose that it is also the apparatus we use to interpolate between sensed data during our waking period. It is well known that our sensation of a continuous and smooth external reality is made possible through interpolated meta-sensation (sensation generated entirely from internal resources, memory, habit and hard-wired psychology etc.). This meta-sensation must NOT be interesting, however. Afterall, its job is to allow attention to focus elsewhere whilst maintaining an IMPRESSION of seemless continuity in the background. Its material is the very stuff of archetypes, stereotypes, habitual behavior and physics, in other words, the unremarkable.
So, if this truly is the same machinery, how does this dull, "Prosaic Apparatus" create the startlingly unreal (at times) quality of dreams during REM sleep? Well, its waking function is very short term. It fills a gap between moments only. (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it extrapolates rather than interpolates. It can't know the future. It can only extend the present.) In dreams, on the other hand, it is seemingly cut free, untethered by the sequences of realworld input. Sequences which are, incidentally, entirely self-consistent with themselves. Such inputs perform the function of a series of course corrections. Further, they, perhaps, fine-tune the extrapolating process, prompting better-judged stereotypes etc. When dreaming, however, the prosaic apparatus extrapolates and then extrapolates from this extrapolation, and so on.
Is there any "input" during dreaming? Clearly memories figure here. Memories from all periods of our life, but generally with a strong bias to the recent. (More to go here.)
Can we deduce an ancillary purpose for dreaming based on this model of the apparatus existing primarily for waking purposes? Well, it would be advantageous if the apparatus could safely fill larger gaps in our perception of external reality freeing up more time for focussing on more productive matters. Maybe dreaming is an opportunity for the Prosaic Apparatus to practise being unremarkable. It fails when it goes so wildly wrong as to wake us up in a sweat.
This concept of the Prosaic Apparatus sits alongside another concept. This one is about the kinds of perceptual errors that people can make, i.e. Type1 and Type2. Type1 errors are committed by people who see things that aren't there. They are generally creative, credulous and tend to cry wolf. Type2 errors are committed by people who fail to see things that are there. They are generally pedantic, cynical and tend to be eaten by wolves. Evolution favors the former, though the evolutionary risk is a brain chemistry that may occasionally lapse into complete fantasy in some people.
The particular nature of a person's Prosaic Apparatus must surely be reflected by the type of perceptual faults they make, though the nature of the reflection is not at all obvious. Perhaps it is reasonable to assume that a predisposition to Type 1 faults lies with those who have fanciful or disturbing meta-sensations. The question is, is this because they attempt to go too long without a "real input" course correction ?
Before we can proceed with this line of argument we must now ask in more detail what is going on between such course corrections. What is it that individuals are "focussing on"?
This is from the a New Scientist article on how Ritalin works-
"It probably helps the animal focus on what's new and not be distracted by what's familiar," says Candice Drouin, who led the team at Drexel University in Philadelphia. "That's what happens in children with ADHD: they pay attention to too many things."
