Final

A scene from the 1989 <n>cyberpunk</n> anime <n>Megazone 23 Part III</n>.

But there’s a darker side. Since the corporation controls all dreams, they also shape **desires, beliefs, and opinions.** Through subtle programming, they influence how people think, what they aspire to, and what they fear.

CGI artwork by <n>Mike Winkelmann</n>, also known as <n>Beeple</n>.

The main character, a hacker, stumbles upon a buried truth: Dreams were never meant to be sold. They were always natural. This discovery shatters everything they thought they knew—but how do you convince a world that has been programmed to accept and even embrace their oppression

Illustration for <n>Greg Egan</n>'s book '<n>Isolation</n>' by artist <n>Philippe 'Manchu' Bouchet</n>.

A still from the 2017 film <n>Bladerunner 2049</n>, directed by <n>Denis Villeneuve</n>.

"<n>Never too late</n>," a <n>cyberpunk</n> digital artwork by <n>Daniele Gasparini</n>.

The digital illustration <n>Brellias</n> by artist <n>Brellias</n>.

In the future, humanity has forgotten that dreams were once a natural part of life. A massive corporation now sells them as a premium service.

It all started with a mistake.

Early cybernetic implants were designed to enhance productivity by eliminating REM sleep, under the false belief that humans would function better without dreams. But instead of making people more efficient, the lack of dreaming led to psychological and cognitive decline.

Rather than admit their failure, the corporations found a way to profit from it. They reinvented dreams—packaging them into subscription-based neural chips. Now, people pay for carefully curated dream experiences, marketed as entertainment, therapy, education, and even creative inspiration. Dreaming has become just another commodity.

Digital illustration <n>Unit B-378</n> by artist <n>Josan Gonzalez</n>.