system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Ethics of lucid dream sex

TW: mention of sexual violence, cheating, murder, etc.

Bit of a weird one, but hear me out. I have been having lucid dreams semi regularly recently and I always seem to try to have sex in every dream. Idk why, maybe I’m just horny. I am in a relationship but it is long distance and I barely ever get to have sex with her. Recently I had sex with another woman in a dream that wasn’t my girlfriend. It’s happened a few times. In fact I feel like I have sex with others more than with my gf. Maybe it’s because I know in real life me and my gf have sex but in a lucid dream I get to have sex with anyone I want.

Also let me just say this woman was not a real person she was a random girl I invented at the time.

Now in the lucid dreams I am obviously 100% conscious and in control of my actions. I am also in control of what I want to happen in the dream. The situations also feel very much like real life to me at the time.

It lead me to think of this ethical dilemma. I cannot justify as to why this shouldn’t count as cheating. Just because the person I had sex with was not real doesn’t change anything about the actions from my side. How is it tangibly different to real life cheating? And to me it was like real life when I was in the dream.

But then again, would having sex with a sex doll count as cheating? I’m thinking no. Would fantasising about other women count as cheating? It’s obviously not ideal in a relationship but again not cheating. 

This also lead to some other questions about lucid dreaming ethics. Like is it unethical to commit rape or other sexual violence in a lucid dream? What about murder? 

I mean in both scenarios there is no victim. It would be no different to a fantasy. At the end of the day I think what makes rape and murder unethical is the presence of a victim. I think I have the belief that thoughts that happen inside your own head, are not backed up by actions, and that never leave your head (ie saying them OutLoud, telling people, etc.) cannot be unethical. Can thoughts be unethical if they don’t have real actions? And are actions in lucid dreams comparable to thoughts since they both happen inside your head and not in real life?

Just wondered everyone’s thoughts and if there’s any philosophical thinking that has already gone on in this area. Basically help me figure out if I cheated on my gf in a lucid dream 😭
gpt
It seems you more or less worked this out by yourself, what happens in lucid dreams isn't real, you're just imagining shit, so nothing in there matters in of itself. 

The relevant thing you should be concerned with is how the things you imagine can form dispositions towards actual actions. If you constantly fantasise about fucking other women, will this have some influence on you actually doing this? It seems plausible. So we shouldn't be concerned about how the stuff bouncing around in our head for its own sake, for the sake of us wronging dream people or whatever other nonsense, but how what we imagine can influence us in the waking world.