• Hellfire103@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    “Know” is a stretch. Plants respond to attack by releasing chemicals (e.g. nettles and grasses), curling or retracting their leaves (e.g. acacia), or by changing their morphology (e.g. holly); but they have no nervous system - let alone a brain - so it’s not like you’re killing an animal.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      2 months ago

      We don’t know how consciousness works enough to say they don’t. Having a brain and/or nervous system might not be necessary.

      They don’t have muscles either, but some plants are known to uproot themselves and fucking move.

      • nifty@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        We don’t know how consciousness works enough to say they don’t. Having a brain and/or nervous system might not be necessary.

        Hmm sorry but no, there are traits exhibited by conscious entities which we don’t observe in those which lack consciousness. This is a nice explainer on consciousness, note that it’s not saying anything about needing a brain to exhibit those traits

        https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/#DesQueWhaFeaCon

        correct me if I am misremembering sth

        • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          How will we ever know for sure if plants have their own form of consciousness that doesn’t follow a list of requirements that’s based on animals, or can feel pain.

          • nifty@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            But why do you think plants should have some own form of consciousness? All organism which have circulatory systems have generally similarly behaving circulatory systems. So why should consciousness be different?

            No, if an organism does not exhibit all properties of consciousness that we see in all other organisms, then it’s not conscious

            • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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              28 days ago

              I see what you are saying, but maybe you’re looking at it from an animal perspective instead of a plant one. They could have consciousness in their own way that’s not similar to ours, so we think they are “brainless” or not aware of what’s going on. I’m not a scientist but I do wonder about plants. They are living creatures.