Sensory Ecology

Cf. ego tunnel, umwelt, Biosemiotics.

Biernaskie, Jay M., Jennifer C. Perry, and Alan Grafen. ‘A General Model of Biological Signals, from Cues to Handicaps’. Evolution Letters 2, no. 3 (2018): 201–9. https://doi.org/10/grwz7s.

Animals, plants, fungi, all engage in mimicry.

In Defense of Plants

On Perceptual and Experiential Differences

It is common to argue 1 that other beings have "totally" different perceptions and therefore leaving different worlds. And further that these worlds are no accessible to humans. 2 This is not supported by evidence. Indeed, the worlds of many animals are informed by different senses. However it is likely that the overlap between these worlds is much more substantial than the differences between them.

This position is not helpful in deliberately and unhelpfully othering nonhuman beings. The intention is often positive, to generate excitement and wonder about the perceptual richness possessed by many forms of life. However, the claims for otherness are grossly exaggerated.

Examples confirming substantial overlap of perceptual worlds include:

Evolutionary similarity between species, at the level of genes but also at other levels, including culture and behaviour, chemical processing, etc.
Example of evolutionarily disappearing/devolving and reappearing senses and other traits.
The fact that objects, processes, materials are shared. It is more meaningful to speak of individual objects and living beings as expressions or local states of underlying processes. Thus, they are linked by the underlying foundational mechanisms and historical trends.
Shared lives, mutualisms, predation, mimicry, other relationships and communications between organisms and species. Endosymbiosis.
Shared histories and shared responses to local condition, to change, etc.
Plasticity and ability to compensate for injuries or see in the dark, obtain information in noisy situation and filter what is important. It is likely that shared evolved mechanisms operating on the shared physical and chemical processes pick out similarly relevant signals and represent them to the organismic consumption/use in similar ways.
Overproduction of capabilities through evolution. All living beings have built-in redundancy. This redundancy allows them to demonstrate plasticity, to adjust to the ever-shifting ecological-niche boundaries. The redundancies of different species and organisms likely overlap.
Convergent evolution and the invention of different mechanisms to tap into the same information flows.

Footnotes

Yong, Ed. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. New York: Random House, 2022. Also: Higgins, Jackie. Sentient: What Animals Reveal About Our Senses. London: Picador, 2021.˄
Nagel, Thomas. ‘What Is It Like to Be a Bat?’ The Philosophical Review 83, no. 4 (1974): 435–50. https://doi.org/10/cjr7k4.˄

Backlinks

On Perceptual and Experiential Differences