Dude, who even knows.
Question with 3 notes
Anonymous asked:
I have an inherent lack of ability to literally dream (confirmed by sleep study while unaffected by any substances, as well as subjective experience) since childhood, and it really doesn’t affect my life much. I’m still capable of making creative works and coming up with new ideas to improve my life, but I grant I am fairly abnormal in other ways too, so it may have unfortunate effects on the average American even if it does not on me.
(re:)
You ever read Nancy Kress’ Beggars books? Kinda surprised I’ve never heard about them around here, anyway a key premise is that with “designer baby” genetic engineering a thing, a modification is developed that kills off the need for sleep and also raises intelligence, and these “Sleepless” come to dominate society in the following generation.
Which becomes an early-90s meditation on what the productive members of society owe to the rest (the “Beggars in Spain” of the first title).
In the 2nd book, Beggars and Choosers, there’s a group of further modified, hyperintelligent “SuperSleepless” that in retrospect are kinda an autism metaphor that create their own subculture, this is particularly the one the rat-adjs might be interested in, the small group gets charged with bread & circuses support of the entire rest of humanity but strike out to create their own society and struggle against legacy institutions
(In the 3rd book, Beggars Ride, they… drop syringes from the sky that somehow bind people into triads in some sort of thing about community, or polycentric society or something, it’s really a tribute to SFF trilogy book deals)
Anyway at one point the SuperSleepless befriend an unmodified natural genius and his niche becomes to sleep, dream, and then compose multimedia concerts for the Sleepless of what it’s like