Umwelt

This cartoon led me to looking into the biological concept of Umwelt.  To paraphrase wiki, Umwelt, in this case, is translated as '"self-centered world" It is theorized that organisms can have different umwelten, even though they share the same environment.

In other words, an organism shapes and re-shapes its world based on its interaction with that world.  Per  Jakob von Uexküll, the creator of the theory of Umwelt, a stem of a blooming flower is perceived differently by an ant, cicada-larva, and a cow and therfore all perceive the same world in vastly different fashions. Alexi Sharov states that, the main idea of Uexküll is that each component of Umwelt has a functional meaning for an organism; it may be food, shelter, enemy, or simply an object that is used for orientation. An organism actively creates its Umwelt through repeated interaction with the world. It simultaneously observes the world and changes it

But it the concept of Umwelt limited to simple organisms? Can it be extended to humans?  Many argue that because we are reasoning beings we live in the welt (actual world) instead of in an Umwelt (personal world).
I know that I perceive my world (my 'welt') through different filters -- different ways in which I interact with my world. I am an engineer so I tend to look at things with respect to how they work, how they can be fixed. But I am also a poet, so my perception relies heavily on the color and shape of words and how they interact, I can be metaphor driven. I am also white, middle aged, middle class, and I could be in better shape.

Does all this cause me to create my own Umwelt? A world perceived through the filters of my personal perceptions and interactions? And do I change my Umwelt as I observe it?

Or, as the critics of Unwelt applied to humans argue, does my ability to reason overcome and allow me to see the same world that everyone else sees?

I wonder if it is a bit of both. My personal Unwelt would cause communication problems when I am faced with someone whose personal Umwelt is significantly different. For instance, I may see items with weaknesses that could be fixed, whereas someone else may see the same items not in terms of their weaknesses, but in terms of their unique strengths.

But our human reason, will allow us (should allow us) to break out and find commonality.

Most of the time....