The fact that we humans see things as discrete concepts – as things that are separate from each other – is sometimes said to come from parents, transferring this to their children. “Look at that! What is this?” and so on. I know that, for instance, Alan Watts has said this several times, while talking about the interconnectedness of all things.

I like to watch my daughter as she learns about the world, and while I do agree that parents contribute to this, I think there’s also another mechanism that plays an important role. Another thing that Alan Watts has talked a lot about is the astonishing ability for recognizing patterns we humans have. Children seem to be superior to adults in this regard – only that they don’t have as much experience to draw from when observing patterns.

What I mean is that seeing things as discrete, as separate from their surroundings, simply is a result of pattern recognition. The things stand out as deviations from the overall pattern. I am fairly sure that children would grow up to see things pretty much as isolated from each other, even if their parents wouldn’t constantly point out things to them.