Moran Cerf - The Dream Recording Machine

 

 

So, I'm a neuroscientist, and I do research on people. We don't get a lot of fame doing that, but I actually got to tell you a story about how I did somehow end up being famous for that. So, in my research, I'm working with patients undergoing brain surgery. We try to do all kinds of things to help them, but we also do research with these patients. 

 

One of the things I did in the last couple of years was a study, where we took patients who were undergoing brain surgery, and put electrodes deep inside their brain during surgery to help them with clinical reasons. But we also did something where we told them, "We're going to show you pictures and see how your brain looks when you see those pictures and we have a map of your brain when you see those pictures and then we can basically know how your brain looks when you think of those things."

 

So, the patient could sit in bed and think about the Eiffel Tower, we would see a pattern that we recognized from before and we would project a picture of the Eiffel Tower in front of their eyes. So, patients would basically sit in bed, think about things and we would project their thoughts on screen in front of their eyes. This was a remarkable project that took us five years to accomplish. When we finished, we were very excited and wanted to tell the world about it. The way scientists tell the world about things is by publishing it in a paper. 

 

So, you write a paper describing everything you did. We said we could have people sit in bed, think about things and project their thoughts on a screen. And then, you send this paper to a bunch of journals, journals with all kinds of ranking. The journals basically take your work, they try to find flaws in it, and if they can't find any flaws, they publish it. That's basically what you do as a scientist. This is your career. 

 

Now, journals get all kinds of rankings. And the highest-ranking journal in science, the one that is the hardest to get in, is called Nature. Nature is where you put your work if you really are going to change the world. To give you an example, this is where the discovery of DNA was published in the 1950s. When they cloned the sheep Dolly, it was published there. When they discovered a new galaxy, they published it there. It's really the place where you put your work if you're going to change the world. 

 

So, we submitted our work there and it took six months where people tried to find flaws in our work. And eventually, on October 1st, I got the email saying, "Congratulations, your work is going to be published in Nature in three weeks." I was excited. This is something that doesn't happen regularly to scientists. It happens usually zero to one time in a scientist's career. So, I was really happy that my work is going to be there. I was still a graduate student at the time. I was ecstatic. 

 

And then, they tell you that they're going to come out to your work within three weeks. So, you have three weeks to prepare things. And then, they have a press release where they announce to the world your work. Usually, those press releases don't go well. People don't get it right. So, I had this idea. I contacted the Nature and I said, "Why don't we create a YouTube video explaining the work? We're going to make a nice video. We're going to interview myself, my colleagues. We're going to show videos of the patients thinking about things and projecting their thoughts. This video is going to explain to people how it's done." 

 

They were very happy with it. And I said, "I'm going to make it. I'm going to edit and make this movie." So, I spent the next three weeks working on making this movie. I actually worked day and night, and I learned stuff and I did a lot of cool things in the movie. I ended up working until the very last day, until the day the press release was about to happen. I worked all night. And at 08:00 AM that morning, I actually put this video out there on Nature's website and I just waited. 

 

Now, the press release was scheduled for 01:00 PM, so I had five hours to sleep. And I said, "I'm going to go to sleep now, rest before my glorious day comes out." I put my phone on vibrate and I went to sleep to relax a little bit. I was planning to wake up at 01:00 PM to see how things come out, but I actually ended up waking up an hour before, because my phone kept vibrating the entire time and woke me up. I picked up my phone and I looked at it and I had 50 missed calls. My answering machine was full of messages, and I didn't know what's going on.

 

And then, my phone was ringing right away. So, I picked up the phone. And on the phone was the senior producer for BBC Nightly News. And he says, "I saw your work. I saw your video. I want to open our Nightly News with this video." Now, here's the thing about the video. In the video, I asked one of my colleagues, a neurosurgeon in our team, to explain what this work can be in the future, what could happen in this future with this work. And he says, "Well, in the future, you can use this thing to have machines work using just thoughts, using memories, using dreams." And then, the movie ends gloriously with the future and we fade out.

 

And the guy on BBC calls me and says, “I saw your video and I want to know about this dream recording thing that you’re doing.” Just to be clear, dream recording is not what we did. We never recorded dreams. We never did anything with dreams. We only had patients think about things and project our thoughts and just the movie ends with the final two words, recording dreams. So, he asked me about it and I say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What is this dream recording?” And he says, “Well, one of your colleagues in the team said something about dream recording.” And I say, “Well, I don’t think it’s true. Maybe there’s a mistake.” He says, “I don’t understand. Is it possible or impossible?” And I say, “Well, in theory it’s possible.” He said, “Thank you too.” [audience chuckles] 

 

And so, the last thing that I said to the BBC senior producer was that dream recording is possible. And I said, “Well, that’s not a big deal. Maybe it’s one thing, one little mistake, it’s not going to be a big deal. Probably one little fluke, but doesn’t matter.” And now, it’s 01:00 PM and I look and refresh my browser to see what comes out. And the first thing is Nature having this press release describing the ability to have people think about things and see their thoughts. And the second thing is BBC with a headline, “Scientists say that dream recording is possible.” [audience chuckles] And I say, “Well, one mistake, not a big deal. No one’s going to notice that.” 

 

I refresh the browser again. 10 minutes later. MSNBC, “Scientists have been recording dreams.” Refresh the browser. Fox News, “Scientists have been recording dreams and keeping them in storage.” [audience chuckle] Refresh the browser. What’s the journal? “Scientists are coding dream, keeping the database, they have hundreds of years of it.” The story gets bigger and bigger. Everyone talks about the dream recording. No one even mentions the ability to think of things and show them on the screen. No one even mentions that. As I refresh the browser again and again, more and more news outlets are talking about the scientists at Caltech who can record your dreams. 

 

I’m really frustrated. I don’t know what to do. People call me and I answer and I try to explain to one by one each reporter who calls me that it’s not the case. But no one really cares. They keep talking about recording dreams. They have a name for it now, the DRM, the Dream Recording Machine. It has a price and people buy it and there’s like you can buy 10 for $8. [audience laughter] People talk about this thing. And the much I comment about it, no one really cares. I’m really frustrated, because this is my career hinges on this project and no one cares. 

 

So, I called my dad, who’s a journalist. And I said, “Dad, here’s what’s happening. How can I kill this story, because it won’t die by itself?” And my dad, “Look, son, no one cares about science. [audience laughter] Just turn off your phone for two days, don’t answer anything and the story is going to die by itself, because no one cares about it.” And so, I do just that. Two days later, the story is number one. They have like this ranking, it’s number one. BBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Reuters. Everyone keeps talking about this Dream Recording Machine. Because I didn’t pick up my phone for two days now, people email me. 

 

So, I get emails from people sending me their dreams. People asking me to go to hearings with the CIA explaining how they can be. Their dreams are being recorded for years now. I get more and more of those emails. All of that of course not true. I get this chef, a famous British chef says, his dreams have been about this particular recipe and he can’t get ingredients and he wants me to put electrodes in his brain and give him the ingredients. [audience chuckle] Apple calls me and they say they want to have this machine in their next operating system and I say, “It doesn’t exist, sir. I don’t know.” He said, “Fine. You want to play it far? Okay, we can option this thing, so when you actually release this thing, then we’re going to buy it.” I say “It doesn’t exist.” He said, "Oh, you're really playing it tough. Okay, good enough." [audience chuckle] 

 

And so, people call me and ask about it and the story won’t die. There’s like something that the Queen said and still my story trumps this thing. I don’t know what to do. I feel frustrated. My friends who’ve seen me upset for two days now, they contact me and they say, “You know, it’s Halloween now, October 30th. It’s like a fun night. Why don’t you go out with us, have a night out, forget about this thing and just go out.” And I say, “Fine, it’s a good idea. I’m going to go out with you guys.” And I do that. We go out. I dress up. And in a self-deprecating sense of humor, I dress up like Freud. I put a little beard and a pipe and I comb my hair to the side and I have these little glasses and I go out. And now, we all have a great night out in New York. They take pictures of me. And the night after, they’re putting it on Facebook and on places. And now, if you look for my name, not only do they see my work, but I also see a picture of me looking like Freud with the title Moran Cerf Can Record Dreams. [audience laughter]

 

So, the story gets even bigger, because everyone now knows about this thing who is actually the new Freud. That’s me. [audience laughter] And I said, “Oh, my God, this story is never going to die. I don’t know what to do.” I tried to find all kinds of tricks to kill the story by going on live shows and explaining it. It’s not the case. But now nothing happens. And nowadays people say, “You know what? It’s now October 30th. But in four days, they’re going to have the midterm election in the US, November 4th. Surely, this story is going to trump your story.” 

 

Four days later, the House changes hands. But still, the story number two now is about the scientists who can record the dreams. Nothing will kill the story. I’m waiting. It’s been a week now, and nothing ends. I think that, wow, this is never going to happen. My scientific career is over. At the same time, there are other scientists who have been trying to record dreams, who have been commenting my work, saying that it’s impossible that I’ve been doing that, because they’ve been trying for years now. Other scientists have been competing with them, saying that of course they can do it, because I’m better than them. There’s like a battle between scientists all about my work, where I’m not involved in. [audience chuckle] 

 

And I think to myself, wow, this is not going to end. I just have to wait and give up my scientific career, when suddenly I get the phone call. I was sitting in my office and the phone rang. It was 06:00 PM. I answered the phone and on the line was this woman. She says, “I'm going to put Chris up with you in a second.” I wait for him a second. And on the line is a person who introduces himself as Christopher Nolan, a famous filmmaker who just released a movie called Inception about the same time, about people who could do stuff with dreams. He calls me and says, “Look, I've been looking at your work now for a few days. It's great. We're going to have a DVD release of Inception in a few days, and I want you to be the face of this thing. I want you to go on a world tour with me and explain how you've been doing it for a while, so my work is going to be getting the scientific authority, the scientific stamp.” 

 

And I say, “Well, sir, I don't know what to say. It's really a great movie, but we never did it. We never record dreams. I don't think it's possible in the sense that you think it is.” And he says, “Well, send me the paper. I want to read it.” In fact, he was the first and only guy out of all the reporters all over the world, actually asked me to give him the paper. So, I sent him the paper. He reads it and he calls me back and he says, “Look, I looked at your work. Yes, there's nothing about dreams there, but it doesn't matter. I still want you to go on a tour with me, because you're now the face of dream recording. Everyone thinks you are. Just go on a tour with me and explain how it can be done. No one really cares about details. Just go on two with me and explain how it's done.”

 

And I say, “Well, let me think about it. Because on the one hand lies fame and fortune. And on the other hand, my integrity and science. [audience chuckle] I need 24 hours to think about which of the two I'm going to choose.” [audience laughter] So, I spend 24 hours thinking about it. After 24 hours, the phone rings again and I pick up and I say, “As much as I would have loved to help you in this, I don't think I can go on this world tour with you and explain how dream recording is possible, given that it's not.” And he says, “Well, I understand. If you ever change your mind, we're working on Inception II.” And I say, “I'll remember and I'll call you back.” And so, all I was left was with a scientific project that gradually went the right way, and people actually now know the truth about it and a story. Thank you.