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Post by Aussienot on Oct 20, 2008 23:51:00 GMT -5
This thought popped into my head this morning. Tarot was sleeping and appeared to be dreaming, whining and "running ". This is something almost every dog owner has experienced with a sleeping dog.
It is well establish science that in humans, dreams are messages created by the subconsious. Increasingly, scientists are finding that dog genes and human genes are similar. Since dogs clearly can have illusory dreams, could this mean that they have a subsoncious too?
Twenty or thirty years ago, scientists thought that random brain cell firing were what caused dreams, but that idea has been debunked. So yes, maybe that is what causes dog dreams, but what if it is not?
And if dogs do have a subconscious, does this mean that they can process abstract, non-immediate mindstates such as regret, revenge, aspirations?
And before you accuse me of smoking the wacky weed, remember that it was not all that long ago that it was debateable as to whether dogs were capable of conscious thought . . . . .
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Post by Tammi21 on Jan 17, 2009 13:17:36 GMT -5
I have always heard things like, “dogs can’t be vindictive.” or “dogs can’t premeditate.” And I would think to some extent they can’t. Most likely when people believe that their dog is being vengeful it is just the dog reacting to the situation. And if a dog is truly vengeful I would think that it would have a vary narrow scope, as would the subconscious of a dog. For example, a dog dreams about running, barking, growling, because that is what dogs do. Just as we are more likely to dream of our own worries or daily routines.
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