When Animals Dream

June 28, 2022 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: animals, book, dreams, neuroscience, News, Peña-Guzmán, philosophy, Princeton

In his 1968 novel that formed the basis for the remarkably innovative as well as remarkably puzzling 1982 film Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick famously asked the question “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” With his 2022 examination of mental activity during temporary reversible states of unconsciousness in non-human animals, Prof. David M. Peña-Guzmán could be said to ask “What do sheep dream of?”

In his When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness, Prof. Peña-Guzmán “brings together behavioral and neuroscientific research on animal sleep with philosophical theories of dreaming” in order to to provide his readers with “an invaluable window into the cognitive and emotional lives of nonhuman animals, giving us access to a seemingly inaccessible realm of animal experience.”

A tantalizing possibility indeed, but is insight truly possible? As the book only recently reached me, I’m not yet certain, but I’ll certainly be sharing my thoughts about what I discover in detail once I’ve finished reading it.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

→ John E. Riutta

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