Why Machines Need to Dream

Dreams are, for the most part, delightful. As we sleep, visual and audio fragments combine into nonsensical snippets and epic narratives. Loosely recalled moments merge with vivid, imagined scenes; we interact with characters known and characters conjured up; we explore our fantasies and, sometimes, face our fears. Yet sleeping and dreaming do not exist for our nocturnal pleasure alone. As we slumber, our brains filter information collected in waking hours.