Different Senses Mean Different Umwelts

Every species experiences our planet differently

Photo by Sean Robertson on Unsplash

Isn’t it interesting how once you become aware of something, you start seeing it everywhere? It doesn’t matter what it is, either. If you’re considering buying a yellow car, you see yellow vehicles everywhere. Wondering whether to switch jobs or make another major life decision? Signs seemingly from the Universe pop up anywhere you look. Well, it appears I’m going through something like that.

I’ve written a few articles lately that dance around the same concept. The idea is that there is far more to Life than we thought, and much of it occurs beyond our reach. This is even more apparent when you consider that despite our unique intelligence or conscious awareness, our senses still limit us. Many animals have capabilities we lack, so imagine what their experience of our planet is like.

Anthropomorphization

I’ve written about this before in more detail, but somewhere along the way, we humans evolved the ability to become emotionally attached and even assign human-like traits to non-human entities. Which, by the way, don’t even have to be alive — like your favorite mug. This trait is called anthropomorphization. We don’t know how long we’ve had this ability, maybe since the beginning, but it at least goes back…