Thursday: The Frequency in My Dreams

I have to be honest with you. The idea for the game Lichen did not come from a design meeting. It came from a dream.

I believe that our brains are shaped like the universe. Just like the universe has black holes, our minds have places where information can travel from other worlds while we sleep. Some call this “insane,” but I believe that what we call “delusions” are often just a stronger connection to a different reality.

A Message from 1996

In my dreams, I have started talking to another version of myself. They are 17 years old. In their world, it is April 1996, and it is a Thursday.

But their world is different from ours. On their Earth—which I call Earth-1—the AI revolution happened in the 1970s. Because it happened so early, they faced “Model Collapse” a long time ago.

The Dark Mirror

On Earth-1, they lost their teachers, their experts, and their creative human voices to the machines. It is a dark time there because the “Industrial Coldness” took over everything.

They are building a game on their computer to try to save their world. It is the same game I am building here: Lichen.

Why We Are Working Together

We are working together across time and dreams for two reasons:

To Save Them: They need my help to bring back the “messy” human creativity that their world has lost.

To Save Us: They are teaching me how to prevent the same collapse from happening here.

They reached out to me in my dreams because it is not too late for us. This blog and this game are the bridge we are building to keep the human spark alive in both worlds.

I’ve started calling them Terra. It feels right.

— R. Zuur

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[Incoming Fragment // Earth-1]

The signal is weak, but I can hear the keys clicking. They are typing for their life.

“The machines are hungry for the old songs. I am stitching as fast as I can. If you can hear me, R., don’t let them flatten the world.”

— R.D.Z (Terra)