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I think it's an interesting potential answer to the ongoing question of "why do we have dreams, what evolutionary purpose do they serve?" Maybe the answer is th

I think it's an interesting potential answer to the ongoing question of "why do we have dreams, what evolutionary purpose do they serve?" Maybe the answer is that they do not need to serve any purpose because dreaming is actually the default mode - "normal" consciousness is the adaptation. From that perspective the evolutionary purpose (of normal rational consciousness) is obvious. Just musing here but I wonder if that line of thought could shed light on how non-sapient animals experience consciousness as well.

molly0 4y ago
From an evolutionary perspective, letting animals think/dream is an optimal way for them to explore things without risk.
bitwize 4y ago
I can tell you from firsthand experience that dogs dream. Some dogs "talk" in their sleep, move their legs as if walking or running -- the sequence from Cinderella (1950) when Bruno is dreaming of chasing Lucifer is only a slight to moderate exaggeration. A dreaming dog is definitely in a place far removed from waking life -- perhaps one where steaks grow on trees and blood-soaked frisbees fly through the air for no reason.
- not_the_fda 4y ago
  Dogs dreaming is one of my favorite things in life.
quesera 4y ago
My (uninformed!) theory is that dreams are just what brains/neurons appear to do when the driving signal (thought) is mostly disconnected, but the filter (interpretation) is still active. I.e. just neural noise, following pathway patterns by biological necessity, but shaped into conceptual patterns by our overactive pattern matchers which do a ton of work to arrange input into a limited set of "observations". If that's true, nothing we ever dream is truly novel, but just assembled or permuted from the giant set of our own known or imagined pieces. Which seems pretty consistent with my dreams, at least. And it explains the phenomenon be being unable to recognize the dream state without altering it. Heisendreams!

molly0 4y ago

From an evolutionary perspective, letting animals think/dream is an optimal way for them to explore things without risk.

bitwize 4y ago

I can tell you from firsthand experience that dogs dream. Some dogs "talk" in their sleep, move their legs as if walking or running -- the sequence from Cinderella (1950) when Bruno is dreaming of chasing Lucifer is only a slight to moderate exaggeration. A dreaming dog is definitely in a place far removed from waking life -- perhaps one where steaks grow on trees and blood-soaked frisbees fly through the air for no reason.

not_the_fda 4y ago
Dogs dreaming is one of my favorite things in life.

quesera 4y ago

My (uninformed!) theory is that dreams are just what brains/neurons appear to do when the driving signal (thought) is mostly disconnected, but the filter (interpretation) is still active. I.e. just neural noise, following pathway patterns by biological necessity, but shaped into conceptual patterns by our overactive pattern matchers which do a ton of work to arrange input into a limited set of "observations". If that's true, nothing we ever dream is truly novel, but just assembled or permuted from the giant set of our own known or imagined pieces. Which seems pretty consistent with my dreams, at least. And it explains the phenomenon be being unable to recognize the dream state without altering it. Heisendreams!