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This article is about a mathematician who mathematically analyzed his dog’s path to retrieve thrown sticks. I’m passing it along because of both its bond and behavioral elements. Among the bond ones, we see a man who is enchanted by his dog’s perfectly doglike behavior and seeks to translate these into the language of his profession. People who see a shared human-animal experience in terms of what it means to the animal as well as themselves are becoming increasing rare in our society. In a tribute to balanced journalism, the article also considers alternate human views, those who see the dog’s display as unworthy of the complex human math assigned to it.
What those in the latter group miss takes me to the behavioral element. In spite of the complex math required to explain it, the dog’s behavior could represent no more than the mandate hard-wired into all living beings: Get the job done using the least amount of energy. For those engaged in this process–be they single cell, slug, dog, or humans–such an integral part of being, no understanding of higher math is needed.