What if the dream was real?

This is going to be a continuation of my last post about Inception.  This concept of entering into virtual worlds, whether it be a dream, a computer program (Matrix), Ninjitsu (Naruto Magenkyo), or Recall Memory Insertion (Total Recall) what would the world be like if this was made possible?

What if the concept of inception and entering your dreams was possible.  The ability to sleep for 10 hours, and move down levels within your dream until you reach the 4th stage (aka limbo) where time slows to an absolute crawl; where you can live out 50 years of your life in a world that you and your mind see's appropriate.  Could you do it?   Would you do it?

This concept just blurs the lines of reality because at this point, what is reality?  Does it matter if it happened or not if in your mind you truly believe it did?  It makes you wonder how much you really care if people believe it or not if you yourself believe it.  For example, if i witnessed a UFO and nobody believed me, would i care?   I myself saw something that nobody would ever believe because the concept of extraterrestrials actually existing is too much for many to comprehend.

So what I wonder is how many people would choose to go this route.   Live out 50 years in their mind in a world that they see fit.  Call my cynical but I honestly believe that many people would choose this and when they come back to the real world, no longer see the point because they would have woken up as "old souls" already having lived and remembered 50 years of their life in a world far more ideal (at least to them) than what the "real" world has to offer.   Would crime rates go down?   Or would they go up?   Less people in the world?   Maybe it would be like the Surrogates where you divide the world into two social factions; those that choose to dream naturally and those that choose to dream to live out their lives.

There was a scene in inception that:


"They come here every day to sleep?"
"No, they come here to be woken up.   The dream has become their reality.... who are you to say otherwise?"

That is how I feel the world will become with this technology.  It's a small scene but it fits what would happen to society if this were to ever become possible.  Suddenly the world inside your head is a perceptibly better reality than the real world.  We can already see small examples of it even today:  The Sims, Second Life, Online communities.  We all know it's there and maybe that's why this is so dangerous.   Human nature and our addictive tendencies would run away from our problems and instead choose the easier path; even if it meant wasting away in the real world waiting for the time when you can go back to sleep and enter your sanctuary.