Plants & Consciousness

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is an article about plants and their consciousness/intelligence.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34849374

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Research suggests plants might be capable of more than we suspect. Some scientists - controversially - describe plants as "intelligent".

They argue a better understanding of their capabilities could help us solve some of the world's thorniest problems.

"We are convinced that plants are cognitive and intelligent, so we use techniques and methods normally used to study cognitive animals.

"The main problem with plants is they move much more slowly than animals so we need to record plant movement for many days.

"Plants are much more sensitive than animals. Every root apex can detect 20 different physical and chemical parameters - light, gravity, magnetic field, pathogens and so on.

"Plants distribute all along the body the functions that in animals are concentrated in single organs. Whereas in animals almost the only cells producing electrical signals are in the brain, the plant is a kind of distributed brain in which almost every cell is able to produce them.

"Underestimating plants can be very dangerous, because our life depends on plants and our actions are destroying their environments."

"Every tree is linked to every other tree underground - the "wood wide web". Through these pathways they talk to each other and then behave in certain ways.

"But we haven't treated them with respect that they are sentient beings. If we can shift our thinking, and change our behaviour, that will then be beneficial for the plants and our forests."

"If you grow a plant with a red light on its right and a blue light on its left, it will "decide" to bend to the blue light.

"The question is, did it know that it was making the decision? All this information is being integrated in the absence of a brain and that is the incredibly cool and very unknown mechanism.

"We need to understand that the brain is but one amazing evolutionary solution for information processing. It's necessary to write a symphony and do linear algebra, but it's not the only solution for integrating information.

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For information.

Cheers.

Sriram

[Bubbles]

 

What will the vegetarians do then poor things?

Turn into fruitarians? Eat rocks?

 

[ad_orientem]

What will the vegetarians do then poor things?

Turn into fruitarians? Eat rocks?

 

Looks like Shaker and BA are going to starve.

[Shaker]

And Rhiannon too, only I don't remember reading anything about any proof of this (typically lots of might-bes, could-bes, maybes and perhapses, as usual), so I'll be sticking to the lettuces and aubergines until there is.

[Rhiannon]

Pretty sure Udayana's vegetarian.

[Leonard James]

What will the vegetarians do then poor things?

Turn into fruitarians? Eat rocks?

 

Brighton rock is very palatable!

[Rhiannon]

If the trees could communicate then the ents wouldn't have lost the ent wives.

[Udayana]

Plants may have intelligence, even consciousness, but clearly it is of a different kind to that of animal life. It does not necessarily mean that they object to being eaten by animals that help them propagate ... as long as they are treated properly and not destroyed.

[Maeght]

I'm vegetarian too. Didn't realise there were so many of us on here.

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Vegetarians don't normally eat trees and whole plants....but it is a valid point. 

In Hindu tradition, there is a gradation even in this.  Some people will eat all parts of a plant including roots and stem. Some people avoid roots. Some will avoid stem parts and some others will not eat even the seeds. Many people will eat only edible leaves and the pulp of the fruits or veggies... throwing away the seeds for germination. This is considered the best diet but is not meant for everyone.

People are made differently and the same diet will not suit everyone uniformly.

About 'consciousness'.....the fact that trees are intelligent is not unknown to Hindus and many ancient societies.  We Hindus consider plants as part of the spiritual journey.

But what I wanted to highlight is that 'consciousness' and 'intelligence'  are not products (emergent properties) of the human/animal brain as many people seem to think. Consciousness and Intelligence (albeit of varying complexities) are commonly present in nature and form a fundamental  part of it.

Mechanisms are secondary to functions and will evolve to match the functional requirements and not the other way around.

Cheers.

Sriram

[Sriram]

Here is something more about how smart plants determine the productivity and composition of their ecosystems.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151201130017.htm

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It's easy to think of plants as passive features of their environments, doing as the land prescribes, serving as a backdrop to the bustling animal kingdom.

But what if the ecosystems of the world take their various forms because plant "decisions" make them that way? A new theory presented by Princeton University researchers in the journal Nature Plants suggests that in some cases that may be exactly what happens. In one of the first global theories of land-biome evolution, the researchers write that plants may actively behave in ways that not only benefit themselves but also determine the productivity and composition of their environs.

"Our theory explains biomes based on the new idea that we must consider plants to be smart and strategic," said senior author Lars Hedin, a Princeton professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and department chair. "This is a global theory that explains why biomes differ in nutrient conditions and in their abilities to respond to disturbances and to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."

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