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Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida. For one thing, the empathic faculty probably required an unimpaired group instinct; a solitary organism, such as a spider, would have no use for it; in fact it would tend to abort a spider’s ability to survive. It would make him conscious of the desire to live on the part of his prey. Hence all predators, even highly developed mammals such as cats, would starve.
Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida. For one thing, the empathic faculty probably required an unimpaired group instinct; a solitary organism, such as a spider, would have no use for it; in fact it would tend to abort a spider’s ability to survive. It would make him conscious of the desire to live on the part of his prey. Hence all predators, even highly developed mammals such as cats, would starve.
Approximate author period: c. 1955 AD · modern
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- Philip K. Dick
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
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- Approximate author period: c. 1955 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1928 to 1982; Wikidata Q171091, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q171091 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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