Imagine getting ready for bed, brushing your teeth, setting your alarm and then putting a device on your head that allows you to control your dreams. It might sound like something out of a Christopher Nolan movie, but it’s also the real-life promise of a new futuristic-looking headband called Halo, currently in development by US tech start-up Prophetic.
Planned for release in 2025, Halo aims to allow you to have more lucid dreams-dreams where you are aware that you’re dreaming. In some cases, you might also exert (施加) a degree of control over what happens in these dreams, perhaps in ways that benefit your waking life, such as solving work problems, visiting faraway lands, practising guitar and much more.
The state-of-the-art approach taken by the team behind the Halo device involves two stages. First, they are using EEG (脑电图) and fMRI (功能性磁共振成像) to collect vast amounts of brain data from volunteers experiencing lucid dreams. This information will be key for the second main area of investigation, which involves using TUS (超声) to manipulate brain activity in a way that will induce (诱导), sustain and influence lucid dreams by employing high-frequency sounds.
So, is there any reason not to be excited about the Halo headset? One issue is that TUS is a relatively new approach to brain stimulation and it's not entirely clear what the long-term consequences of zapping your brain with high-frequency sounds might be. A second Issue is that some sleep scientists believe dreams have basic functions. One potential concern is that by using a device to alter (更改) the nature of your dreams, you risk interfering with the usual purpose of your dreams: A final consideration is that there are already several established techniques for inducing lucid dreams that do not involve cutting-edge technology, such as training by repeatedly pairing a sound with deliberate thoughts of self-awareness, which are cheaper than the Halo headset.
With all these issues taken into consideration, the journey ahead is not without obstacles, and only time will reveal the future path of Halo.
【小题1】How does Halo aim to impact users’ dreams?| A．By keeping a clear track of dreams. | B．By enabling more conscious dreams. |
| C．By producing more frequent dreams. | D．By increasing the duration of dreams. |
| A．Too much control over dream content. |
| B．Known long-term impacts on the brain. |
| C．Privacy concerns about collecting brain data. |
| D．Interference with the basic functions of dreams. |
| A．Dreams altered by Halo would lose all usual functions. |
| B．Other. established techniques are less effective than Halo. |
| C．Halo is the most advanced device for lucid dreams so far. |
| D．High-frequency sounds cause permanent damage to the brain. |
| A．The Basic Functions of Lucid Dreams |
| B．The Promising Future of Halo Headband |
| C．The Pros and Cons of Dream Controlling |
| D．Halo Headband: a Device for Lucid Dreams |
