A Sentience Article from All-Creatures.org

What I Learned from the World's Most Unflappable Cat

From Wayne Hsiung, The Simple Heart
March 2023

What I have learned, over the last 20 years, is that the solution to fear was right under my nose. And the one who found it was my cat.

Joan Sawhney Hsiung...

Fear is the primordial emotion. When the first vertebrate animals appeared on this earth 500 million years ago, fear was among the most important neurological innovations that helped them survive. Microorganisms had, for billions of years, developed ways to avoid things that could cause them harm, e.g., a simple chemical avoidance signal: “Move Away.” But as these tiny creatures evolved, their bodies (and minds) became larger and more complex, requiring the coordination of appendages, organs, and billions of cells. The simple chemical avoidance signals could no longer do the trick. It was not until the evolution of fear that larger, multicellular organisms – like animals – could organize their entire biological apparatus to avoid impending threats. Fear was like a flashing danger sign that would warn every part of an animal’s body that it was time for “fight or flight.”

The solutions to this problem have been the subject of countless studies and dissertations. Entire fields of psychiatry and sociology and political science have been devoted to the problem of fear. And yet what I have learned, over the last 20 years, is that the solution to fear was right under my nose.

And the one who found it was my cat.

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

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