Looking around

What we see is not all that gets into our heads! Yet it is such a key part of what we experience that it is worth keeping a Habitat Diversity Album somewhere, also in personal memory.

The other living things around us also owe their existence to perception and prompt processing of selected information. Taking flight briskly comes from timeous warning, catching live food that could have taken flight if reacting fast enough, finding the right place to sleep tonight or every night, and a multitude of other benefits come from the perceptive skills of the species.

The amoeba perceives without sensory organs: no eyes, no nerves, no brain, yet it detects what is relevant to its survival from chemical, mechanical and environmental cues. We have more fun from perception than does the amoeba, or so we think. We also think the klipspringer and the starling have more fun in their daily peregrinations.

But how do we know that? And what are the current limits of what we know? The amoeba, like the bird and the antelope, tells us nothing! We watch and draw conclusions. Live with what gets into our heads. And keep on looking around for more.