The Composite Human

One of the most frustrating things about being human is that we can never get a full glimpse at ourselves.

We’ve domesticated dogs, bred different kinds for selected purposes, and have learned how to train them and how their mating behavior works. But could a group of non-pit bull dogs decipher amongst each other who has the genes that, several generations down, would create a pit bull? Could those same dogs then coordinate amongst each other to mate in a way that would create said pit bull?

Unlikely. Even if they had human-level intellect, they’re biased by seeing things from their point of view. While you may struggle to tell two dogs apart, or two birds, or two of any species, the animal themself doesn’t have that problem. They pick up on facial cues or smells that as humans we can’t perceive, just as bees see ultraviolet light and we can’t.

So intelligent dogs would be able to pick on mating cues humans are blind to, but at the same time, dogs would miss out on other physical features of themselves that as humans we’d have an easy time spotting.

As humans, we have an understanding of our body that no animal could ever have, because we are us. We also know what it feels like to be a human viewing other humans. But we’ll never know what it feels like to be a dog viewing a human. It’s possible that humans have mating behaviors or social behaviors that are invisible to us, but are easily noticed by other animals.

Why do we yawn? Why do we sometimes shiver for no reason? Do we have a pose or behavior that signifies us, like how cats meow? We know all living things radiate heat, and with special cameras, this heat is visible and resembles an aura. But how does that aura fluctuate throughout the day?

Unfortunately, we’re like cameras. While there’s a lot we can see, we’re each configured with a set brightness level, hardware, lens type, battery level—our obstinate point of view limits what we can perceive. And there’s so, so much to perceive about the natural world around us.

Maybe if intelligent aliens ever come down, they can tell us things about ourselves we’ve never noticed.

~~ This post was inspired by Fandango’s One Word Challenge ~~