The purpose of this note is to point out how two innate
fundamental metaconcepts shape our view of our
universe. It is generally accepted today that human
beings, as well as many other animals, construct a
mental view of their surroundings by filtering and
ordering their sensory inputs through a built-in
mechanism in their brains which allows them to sort
out this kaleidoscope of incoming information into a
consistent orderly view of their surroundings. This
mechanism seems to have developed through an
extensive evolutionary process that extends to all
mammals and most birds, indeed, to all animals
whose young develop ex utero during an extensive
period of time under intensive parental care.

~ Database System Concepts Lecture on Fundamental Meta Concepts