Inception: the preemptive construction of reality
When someone is absent-minded and drowned in his thoughts, in Algeria, they say:” He’s building and wrecking.” An expression that describes the subjective process of design in one’s inner space, living inside one’s head, and creating an alternative reality that submits to one’s wants and fantasies.
Inception: the movie
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the movie Inception explores the concept of subconscious mind infiltration and the interplay between the inner and outer worlds. The movie marks three spatio-temporal realms, with each having its layering: the subconscious dream, the limbo, and the real world.
With the real world being the last stop, the outcome, and the most rigid space to act in. Cob and his team create a multilayered dream in which they seek to plant an idea that would automate the desired change they want in the physical world.
In their quest, they enlist the help of an architecture student, Ariadne. Driven by the temptation of having a limitless 3-dimensional canvas on which she can “cheat architecture into impossible shapes,” she would be responsible for designing the different scenery of each dream layer.
As part of her introduction, Cob explains the brain's aptitude to instantly and unconsciously build entire setups to host dreams. The designer's goal would be to enable the conscious mind to take over the creation process, similar to lucid dreaming.
The limbo
The limbo, an expanse of infinite raw subconsciousness and elongated timeline. A space over which they have no control and thus risk being stuck in. So Mal and Rob build within, using memories, a world that they relate to.
This depiction of the limbo illustrates the human innate need to self-ground in space, as the absence of reference and familiarity withholds navigation and creates a state of stagnation.
Maladaptive daydreaming or alternate reality
The movie highlights an interesting human vice of creating a parallel mindsourced reality as a defense mechanism against the dissatisfaction with the physical environment. This immersion can be addictive to the point of dissociation from the living world, as in maladaptive daydreaming.
Terminus: reentering the physical realm
The inception principle accentuates that ideation is the origin of all. It’s where “all” starts, every conception and design. Sometimes it’s conscious, and sometimes it’s intuitive and subconscious. But it always has a tangible outcome.
Examining the mental design of alternate universes as a symptom of physical dysfunction could be the starting point of creating a reality that one would want to stick to.