comments:
Origin_of_Mind posted on r/explainlikeimfive2w
It is uncontroversial that all living things, starting from single cells, have biochemical and system-level internal "clocks" which help them to synchronize their behavior to various natural cycles (day-night, tides, the amount of moonlight at night, feeding schedule, etc). There has been much research on the subject and some excellent popular science books, for example "The Geometry of Biological Time" by the late Arthur Winfree. So, we do not need to imagine that the cats start going nuts before dinner time, "because the smell of the previous meal wore out". But there was an unfortunate TV program that has spread this idea, and now it has become a persistent meme on-line.