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How other animals and plants think, and can communicate with us, and we with them — It’s not all mystery or fantasy
Many of us like to read and write stories written in the voices of other animals or even of plants. Some stories can be intended to be amusing and fanciful, but others can be meant to convey quite serious ideas. Stories of the latter kind can be, and have been, criticized for being too imaginative or too “anthropomorphic” — ascribing human characteristics in an unwarranted way to other animals or plants. So, is there any serious communication, between plants, other animals, and us, involved in such stories, or are we just imagining it?
To answer that question, I think we first have to accept that other animals and plants do communicate with each other — especially with other members of their own species — all the time. And they communicate with us humans, too, though not necessarily intentionally. They produce sounds, smells, tastes, touch sensations, and visual sensations, including shapes, colors, and movements, that we can perceive. From those we can observe their behavior, and in the case of some animals, infer their intentions as well. (That dog looks friendly, or it looks like it’s getting ready to attack me.) We communicate in similar ways back to them. Those sensory and behavioral signals constitute a collection of natural interlinquae that many forms of life…
