The basis and inspiration for Dream Machine was the novel Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, in which Lightman attempts to capture surreal worlds where time behaves differently. Certainly when Einstein was contemplating his theory of relativity, he was required to explore the laws of the universe in ways never been done. With his ingenious approach to explain the physical world, Einstein marked the transition from a classical understanding of science to a new era of modern physics and mathematics.

Obviously, dreams are the subject of Einstein’s Dreams, but Lightman must have chosen this as a vehicle for his book for a reason. One might argue that he was trying to convey the significance of dreams in how they reflect our innermost thought without the restriction of the logic and reason that governs us in our conscious state. Lightman may also have been attempting to connect human emotion to the hard-coded study of science – a theme he is renowned for in his other books. Oftentimes dreams reveal parts of ourselves that we did not know were there, or they enlighten us through direct emotion that we ourselves experience. For when Einstein was developing his theory of relativity, he had to think like a dream, beyond what seemed possible. Through sharing one another’s dreams we can learn about each other, ourselves, and our world.

The banners you see above were inspired by particular chapters from Einstein’s Dreams. Clicking on the ‘dream’ button will generate a dream submitted by someone else. Both the banners and dreams appear in random order, with the effect of simulating the sporadic unpredictability of our dreams. Please share your own by clicking on the ‘submit button.’ Your submission can be completely anonymous, and will be instantly posted on the server to share.