Animals, of course.
I know you jest, but one can eat the fruits of a plant without harming the plant.
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Plant Sentience
- Thread starter The Hammer
- Start date
I know you jest, but one can eat the fruits of a plant without harming the plant.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Which through evolution is genius.
Imagine an animal pooped seeds all over the place complete with its own manure. Happy plants!
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
Well, I don't believe that evolution is genius. It is just stuff happening and thus in that sense meaningless. But that is my belief.
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
Well, the serious question is if other forms of life have rights. But that is philosophy, politics and/or religion.
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Plants to get rights? Lol. Rights to what? Not get mowed? Haha. Some species of flowers have been protected for years
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
Well, yes, it is debated how rights apply to other species including grass.
Yerda
Veteran Member
With a straight face?
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Yeah there’s prolly a few endangered grasses in the world I would imagine. I think just protect what’s endangered. Problem solved. End of debates that waste time and money.
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
Yes. One example is that a given type of grass at the level of type has the right to exist.
Jimmy
King Phenomenon
Well not a funny face if it ain’t funny grass.
How are you defining consciousness? Cognitive thought with symbolic representations? I would say rather that consciousness is simply awareness and response to the environment. I see cognitive thought as just a more advanced and more sophisticated expression of consciousness. A flatworm doesn't have a brain, yet it can figure things out just fine.
Astrologer Linda Goodman was very adamant of the benefits(for all) of a 'fruits only' diet. Not culinary fruit, but eating only parts of the plant that wouldn't require the death of it. I thought it was an interesting idea.
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
Then is AI sentient?
I think that in future if plants develop (through death, mutation and evolution) animal-level intelligence it will be in groups of plants (not individual plants). They will be groups of plants, perhaps of multiple kinds, each spread out over much land. There are already plants connected by fungi which exchange nutrients and which might also pass messages about threats such as fire and parasites; but I don't know of any survival pressures which would push plants beyond this into mammal levels of thought. Plants seem to have adapted to fungi, and it is all they can do to keep from being eaten by the fungi. They do use fungi sometimes for getting and sharing nutrients. Plants and fungi are becoming symbiotic, but its mostly because otherwise the fungi would eat them. It could signal a future in which plants and fungi become much more flexible like humans are. Perhaps there will be colonies of plants which can grow in any weather and survive in darkness and extremes of hot and cold or which can fight off any insect or animal which attacks them. They might grow tentacles and stingers and shoot barbs at wandering animals or eat houses. But not this year.
It depends on how you are defining sentience. See the details in this Wiki article: Sentience - Wikipedia. Personally, I'd say no at this point at least, for one reason it is not an organic, biological creature. It's not part of the natural system that evolution created. At best it robotically mimics nature, from what I can tell so far. It's something humans programmed. It didn't organically evolve.
But my question wasn't about sentience per se, but about consciousness itself, not types of consciousness. Is a tapeworm conscious? I'd answer yes. How would you answer that same question?
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Nimos
Well-Known Member
The only thing I'm wondering about is what on Earth are the vegans going to do, they are going to have some rough time if plants are considered sentient
The deeper question is, if one realizes that they are one with everything, does that mean that when they eat a carrot, they are eating themselves?The only thing I'm wondering about is what on Earth are the vegans going to do, they are going to have some rough time if plants are considered sentient