Same place, different experience

Hello Everyone,

There's a great XKCD cartoon about the idea of umwelt, a term that describes the idea that different organism in the same environment experience the world in radically different ways, despite occupying the same general space. Think of a bug's perspective, compared to a rabbit's and then to a human's. I noticed a bit of that this week after Arthur and I attended the Parade of Lights in Winchester with my nephews, and then later in the week when he and I went to the dog park after dark. In the first case, the Parade of Lights was a magical time for my nephews. It was all bright lights and sounds and big tractors and candy and Santa Clause. That's a pretty solid list of things they love. It was exactly the experience you hope to have when you bring a child to a parade. Arthur, and Sophie who was with us, had a very different experience. The bright lights don't do much for them as they are colour blind and near-sighted. The random noises produce anxiety and the big rumbling tractors are very intimidating. Even if they were allowed to eat candy, and I assure you that they are not, they have very little ability to detect sweetness, so it would be lost on them. Finally, there were crowds of people, which is stressful when you are at knee level. On the other hand, later in the week when Arthur and I went to the dog park, I wasn't having a great time of it while it was a veritable festival out there for him. For me, it was cold and dark, kinda creepy and the same place we go to every evening, so kinda boring at the same time.

But Arthur's got a husky's undercoat, so the cold didn't bother him. And he uses his nose more than his eyes, so the darkness didn't bother him either. Nobody there meant there was more room to run around and not be bothered. He could sniff all the cool spots to his heart's content. Lastly, I might not be able to tell if there were someone hiding in the bushes with a goalie mask and a machete, but Arthur would sniff him out before he got within swinging range.

Arthur only finds people creepy, not abandoned dog parks. I actually kind of agree with him on that one.

wes