Symbols from Sense Filter Networks

The active filtering mechanisms of our senses and brain are the basis for symbolic representation of the world. More precisely, they are the concrete things which symbols arise from. The association of these mechanisms form symbols and concepts. For animals like our ducks, their symbolic representation of the world is probably immediate and rooted in what they're experiencing at any given moment.

They're constantly looking for food, or scanning the sky for potential predators. They'll often spot birds or aircraft that are high in the sky long before I notice them. They're also tuned into the chattering of all the local song birds and their predator warnings so in that sense, their vision and brain is linked with all the other birds that are loosely flocking around our property at any given time.

The ducks are constantly squawking and chirping and calling out to communicate amongst themselves and us. Their communication is always about their immediate experience, even when it's in the context of exploring or learning about something new in their environment.

By contrast, human speech based learning is usually aimed at contextualizing new experience or concepts in terms of prior experience and concepts. The immediate world barely even exists in the consciousness of many people, except in the context of playing a sport or driving a car or some physical activity.

It's a pretty good mental exercise to put yourself into that immediate sense processing mode from time to time.