On the Umwelt through a Metaphor

A squirrel stops in the middle of a road after he scrambles after a bit of a nut that the October wind has tossed from a tree. Meanwhile the dry, fallen leaves crunch under the tires of a car turning the corner 50 yards away. The vehicle is on a path, unvarying.

The squirrel is nearly to the double yellow line dividing the road. It sits on its haunches chewing the shell off of the morsel it has discovered. The cold black rubber of the car's tire is on course to unceremoniously relieve this rodent of its mortal coil. Impending death is noticed only in time for the squirrel to make a move in a single direction. Will the squirrel forge further across the street unknown or retrace its steps?

It has already come so far. The terrain which is familiar is behind it. Our hero will choose this path to avoid the tire it recognizes as a threat. The other tire, which will flatten the squirrel instantaneously, could have been avoided if the squirrel had a larger awareness of its surroundings. If the squirrel possessed on observational knowledge of the basic structure of a car and an innate understanding of vector forces as applied to the car's movement, then it could have easily avoided its untimely death. The squirrel will never be aware that it could have saved its own life.

The big picture is the only picture. Anything that exists can only experience a piece of it at a time. We as humans limit this in many ways. We've built values that are imaginary. Socio-economic structures strangle this idea. Ignorance is the only constraint we should posses. We are condemned by the shackles of our mind to only embrace that which we know.

Experience builds fear. Fear is a construct of evolution that has been perverted by the imagination. Humans, with with the use of our pre-frontal lobe, have applied fear of experiences unknown to prediction. It is to be noted and evaluated, not deified. Embracing fear is a crucial part of a full life experience.

The umwelt, or environment of an organism based on its perception, is only limited by the organism itself. Its physiological constraints limit its awareness to that which lies around it. We are able to understand and calculate so much more than so many other organisms. We were built to do so. To not take the necessary steps forward in order to broaden our experience would be folly. We are designed to have an ever-expansive umwelt. One that we can pass on to generations. The expansion of ones umwelt is the second most delightful purpose of man.