Dreaming Is a Private Thing
"Dreaming Is a Private Thing" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in the December 1955 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1957 collection Earth Is Room Enough.Asimov's original title for the story was "A Hundred Million Dreams at Once", but F&SF editor Anthony Boucher changed it.Dreamies can be viewed in private at home by anyone with the equipment and cash to buy or rent them (like present day videos or DVDs).Meanwhile, he interviews a ten-year-old boy as a potential dreamer, a lucrative occupation if he turns out to be suitable and undergoes training.One of Weill's staff tells him that a competing company is opening a chain of 'dream palaces', where everyone can absorb the same dream simultaneously, but he is of the opinion that it will not work.