Dreams are basically simulations of our lives that we run, sometimes with different physical constants, resulting in different worldly behaviours. Fever dreams (not necessarily during a fever) are when we are sweeping over a range of constants, so behaviour keeps on changing.
According to some prominent theories, the world of our waking experience is itself a mental simulation of sorts.
There’s a related theory that dreams basically prevent this mental simulation from overfitting our experience, so our brains are always primed to accept the unpredictable.
I mean, the real world does actually exist. But we only experience a simulation of it, created by our brain based on data from our senses. So yes, we live in a simulation, but it does correspond to reality behind it.
That could explain my dream about setting up a projector in a room with a poisonous atmosphere, where everyone except me has a space suit…
Which vault was that again?
It was a dream about my actual last job.