Have you ever picked up a thin-shelled snail crawling across a sidewalk after a rainstorm? If you looked closely you, no doubt, saw its heart beat. It’s probably one of the only species tangential to man’s inhabitation in which the pumping organ of life is clearly visible. You can feel your own heart beat, yes, but you cannot see it. You can see a slight rhythmic swelling and deflating of a heartbeat on a dog or a cat, or even a sparrow resting on some nearby bush, but you can’t see the heart. Just the heart’s pressure against opaque flesh. The humble snail may be the only creature, easily accessible to your fingers, where you can actually see the heart beating through its transparent shiny shell.
The Problem with Consciousness
The Problem with Consciousness
The Problem with Consciousness
Have you ever picked up a thin-shelled snail crawling across a sidewalk after a rainstorm? If you looked closely you, no doubt, saw its heart beat. It’s probably one of the only species tangential to man’s inhabitation in which the pumping organ of life is clearly visible. You can feel your own heart beat, yes, but you cannot see it. You can see a slight rhythmic swelling and deflating of a heartbeat on a dog or a cat, or even a sparrow resting on some nearby bush, but you can’t see the heart. Just the heart’s pressure against opaque flesh. The humble snail may be the only creature, easily accessible to your fingers, where you can actually see the heart beating through its transparent shiny shell.