Nonfiction

Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses

Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses

  • Downloads：4718
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2022-02-28 03:19:37
  • Update Date：2025-09-07
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Jackie Higgins
  • ISBN：1982156554
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Reviews

Hunter Blackthorne ，

Fascinating！ A good， wide look at "the five senses" and beyond。 Intriguing， keep-you-up-at-night accounts of both human and animal experiences of strange perceptions。 Fascinating！ A good， wide look at "the five senses" and beyond。 Intriguing， keep-you-up-at-night accounts of both human and animal experiences of strange perceptions。 。。。more

E。 ，

“Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses” by Jackie Higgins is a thought-provoking and intriguing book that invites one to marvel at the creatures of the world around us。 Even better， it challenges the reader to contemplate the wonders of the human body and the capabilities it has， far beyond the traditional five senses postulated by the ancients。 Using a variety of animals who specialize in certain abilities， the author explores how form affects function， how the brain c “Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses” by Jackie Higgins is a thought-provoking and intriguing book that invites one to marvel at the creatures of the world around us。 Even better， it challenges the reader to contemplate the wonders of the human body and the capabilities it has， far beyond the traditional five senses postulated by the ancients。 Using a variety of animals who specialize in certain abilities， the author explores how form affects function， how the brain can be mapped to reflect the emphasis on a particular sense， and how knowledge of these capabilities can be utilized to understand certain disease conditions。I’m astonished by the idea of having an additional receptor in the eyes that confers time sense， fascinated by the existence of abysses in the ocean that could swallow up Mount Everest， and love the creative descriptions such as that of the peacock mantis shrimp having “optical panache” as well as pugilistic expertise。 I can’t help but be dismayed by the idea that a person could lose the ability to know where their body is in terms of spatial knowledge after a viral disruption of proprioception， or that the body’s innate clock can be disrupted by a head injury。 This is a densely packed volume of information。 One can read it on several levels。 Easiest is reading to just marvel at the amazing creatures。 I’d never heard of most of these entities…except of course， the cheetah， which I’ve adored for years and admired for its ability to turn on a dime and to explode into action; the octopus， which I’ve learned that I should be even more wary of its escape abilities than I already was; and the vampire bat， which exhibits far more compassion than I’d ever imagined。 Then one can admire the lengths that scientists go to in order to analyze a hypothesis…whether it is being sense-deprived or tolerating the presence of giant cockroaches （ewwww） or tediously counting hair cells or rods and cones。 And finally， there is the science itself。 Personally， I wince at some of the implications of the investigations， as there were quite a few animals sacrificed in order to provide the information， but wow， the revelations that are provided are truly invaluable。Whether you are a scientist， a philosopher， or just a curious student of life， this book will provide hours of fascinating material。 I invite you to expand your mind and enjoy discovering that we have far more than the traditional five or six senses ascribed to us。A copy of this book was provided for review 。。。more

Melissa iorio ，

“Perfect for fans of The Soul of an Octopus” 😍🙋🏼‍♀️Nobody can see that， in this little box， I’m standing here holding up and waving my Beautiful， Stunning， Fascinating， Read， Rated， Favorited and shrink wrapped to protect it， copy of but I am……shamelessly kinda……just hoping for a copy of this 😬 Since 2011， my time on goodreads， I’ve only embarrassed myself by doing this a few times， but some books look like they deserve someone acting like a three year old asking “The Heart o “Perfect for fans of The Soul of an Octopus” 😍🙋🏼‍♀️Nobody can see that， in this little box， I’m standing here holding up and waving my Beautiful， Stunning， Fascinating， Read， Rated， Favorited and shrink wrapped to protect it， copy of but I am……shamelessly kinda……just hoping for a copy of this 😬 Since 2011， my time on goodreads， I’ve only embarrassed myself by doing this a few times， but some books look like they deserve someone acting like a three year old asking “The Heart of a Good Human” for a copy and this is one of them， lol 🤷🏼‍♀️ Although， please forgive me for saying that nobody could pry ”The Soul of an Octopus” from my cold dead hands in exchange for any book。 That copy is under lock and key 。。。more

Dan Drake ，

This is a book about the "hardware" of senses -- the physical， biological structures of our bodies （and animals' bodies！） -- and how they work。 It follows the standard structure and form of a popular science book: many chapters include some intriguing anecdote of some person with a mysterious， intriguing condition related to some sense， and then interweaves the continuing story of that person with stories of some animal and its corresponding sense and descriptions of the scientific research on t This is a book about the "hardware" of senses -- the physical， biological structures of our bodies （and animals' bodies！） -- and how they work。 It follows the standard structure and form of a popular science book: many chapters include some intriguing anecdote of some person with a mysterious， intriguing condition related to some sense， and then interweaves the continuing story of that person with stories of some animal and its corresponding sense and descriptions of the scientific research on those senses， generously peppered with quotations from the scientists involved or familiar with the research。Other chapters are structured around a sort of Hegelian dialectic: describe some animal with a sense that seems incomparably superior to our own; then describe the human sense -- then bam！ Show us that the human sense is actually very， very good。 That's not to throw shade on this book -- it is very well written， and it amply delivers on its subtitle: it uses animals to illuminate the wonder of our own senses。I do think there's a companion or followup book that could be even more interesting。 Higgins， in may places through the book， touches upon the fact that our sensory hardware -- the nerves， cells， and the spectacular physics and chemistry of how they work -- is， in some （ahem） sense， that's not how our senses work: it's our brain that takes the input and integrates it into some kind of sense。 For example， sight: the information sent to your brain from your eye is upside down， poorly focused， and because the optic nerve is in the middle of your retina， has a big hole right in the middle。 You don't perceive -- sense -- that， though， because your brain fixes up the input: it flips it right-side-up， and uses what it knows from recent information and its experience of the world to generate the "correct" input。（But wait， what is "correct"？ For an extreme and amazing thought-provoking take on this， see The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World， in which David Deutsch advances the claim that there's no real reason to suppose that our conscious experience of the world delivered to us via our senses be any kind of faithful， true， or accurate representation of the external， objective physical world。）It would be interesting to see the "software" companion to this book that investigates how the brain takes all this input and does stuff with it。 David Eagleman has done a lot of fascinating research into creating new senses for humans。 In fact， our brains are not only capable of rewiring themselves for new senses， but they are very fast and aggressive about doing so -- see his "defensive activation" theory for why we dream: basically， if we didn't， then our brains would see that our visual cortex hadn't been used at all for a few hours and start repurposing it for something else。 We dream so that we can see when we wake up！For the moment， though， Higgins has written a very good book on how humans and animals alike are sentient -- sensing -- creatures。 。。。more