In keeping with the variable rate of perception theme of this podcast, it’s a little shorter than usual. I had trouble recording it because I kept trying to mentally envision what it meant to see reality at the faster canine rate as well as take into account all the other differences in canine vision. If you don’t recall what those are, here’s a video demonstration of an accurate representation of canine visual perception(minus the processing rate difference discussed in this podcast) compared to cats and some other animals.
Why the rate difference evolved continues to puzzle me because it seems like there are multiple advantages and disadvantages of this for wild animals. But relative to the domestic dog, it does help explain why they’re so good at reading the most subtle changes in our body language and physiology. And it also explains why it sometimes takes so much effort for us to stay one step ahead of a dog instead of lagging behind (or even standing off to the side) reacting after-the-fact. It’s almost as if while they were evolving to better understand us, we were losing our ability to do the same for them as we relegated more and more of our innate capacity to function as quality social models to teaching methods that increased the distance between us and them, and external paraphernalia that replaced us completely.
Is this the response of a species that’s grown lazy or more fearful? Or both?
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