Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence

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I am sad to say that this book just wasn't for me. I am a huge nature lover of both animals and plants and so love to read nature books but unfortunately I found this book to be too dense and without enough interesting facts to keep me really involved. The book opens with a demonstration that could be perceived as magic, and interweaves personal stories with science with philosophy, and challenges all we think we know about plants. I talk to my houseplants and sometimes I say hi telepathically in the forest, but I don’t really know and don’t have to know if it really is perceived. I remember the experiments on snowflakes, when a scientist exposed ice crystals to harsh and soft music and photographed the results, kind of a pseudo science, but I can live in mystery and think it would be nice to think so; and maybe things will be proven later either way. I can live in contradiction. This book is a great introduction to the idea that plants are way more sentient, thinking, emotive than we ever believed. I love books and ideas where we question things we know, and while it may not change everyone’s mind, it is an interesting read. Koch, C. (2015). The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness is Widespread but Can’t be Computed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Consider the movements of Mimosa plants, for example. A poke from a human finger usually causes the plants' leaves to shrink and fold against the stem. This response takes mere seconds—an excellent defense against herbivores. But after a few minutes in a bell jar suffused with anesthetic fumes, Mimosa becomes unresponsive. The same drugs quiet the gyrations of pea tendrils and the clenching of Venus flytraps. Planta Sapiens offers an exciting and detailed look into research on plant intelligence and sets the standard for future studies in this important and forward-looking area"

Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence

This unorthodox approach allows for the complexity of both Berry's personal journey and the wolf's status as a rich cultural avatar. In the chapter “Girl v. Wolf,” Berry unspools the parallels between her experience attending a college far away from her family and the wolf's quintessential role as a lurking threat to girls who leave home. She describes encounters with Big Bad Wolves that made her feel frightened and uncomfortable, but she also explodes the simplistic lessons of the fairy tale by examining how the story's evolution has distorted its original emphasis on survival rather than victimhood. She reflects poignantly on her connections with other female victims of violence whose fates, like Little Red's, were co-opted to serve others' agendas and to assuage—or exacerbate—their fears. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. Create Account Planta Sapiens] takes readers on a journey into a seemingly alien world [...] Read this fascinating book and your view of nature will never be the same again" But as fascinating as these titbits are, you have to cut through reams of deadwood about the author’s career to reach them. It’s a shame. This subject deserves writing that fills the reader with a sense of wonder, encouraging us to think of ourselves as part of an intricate, intelligent biosphere that encompasses flora and fauna alike. Planta sapiens ofrece una perspectiva creativa y audaz sobre la biología vegetal y la ciencia cognitiva. Partiendo de experimentos realizados con las tecnologías más avanzadas, este ensayo apasionante nos invita a pensar el mundo natural de una manera radicalmente distinta.A fascinating description of how plants interact with the environment in myriad ways [...] This book will make people think and help them to become more aware that plants have abilities that they may not know about. And, perhaps most significant, that it is important to truly see everything around us" The ideas we will explore in Planta Sapiens are at odds with most people’s perceptions of plants. They might even make you a little uncomfortable, or force you to wonder what words like “behaving” or “awareness” can possibly mean for a plant, never mind “intelligence.” You are not unusual. It is entirely normal, as an animal, to have reservations about applying to rooted photosynthetic organisms ideas that we normally apply only to mobile, animal-like creatures. Most people are probably more comfortable describing the behaviour of an amoeba than of a vine, or the awareness of a woodlouse than a sunflower. You would probably be perfectly happy thinking about a jay burying acorns as “planning ahead,” while a plant “planning for the future” might make you feel a little uneasy. We will look at the many sources of your discomfort in the next chapter, exploring the numerous zoocentric traps that limit your perception and the long history of animal-focused indoctrination that has shaped your ideas.”

Planta Sapiens | Paco Calvo, Natalie Lawrence - NetGalley Planta Sapiens | Paco Calvo, Natalie Lawrence - NetGalley

Planta Sapiens è una folgorante esplorazione della vita vegetale e un invito a pensare al mondo naturale in modo nuovo e anticonformista. Stiamo smantellando le tradizionali gerarchie della natura, diventando sempre più consapevoli della vita interiore delle altre specie e di quante similitudini esistono tra noi e loro. Non possiamo più considerarci l’unica specie intelligente privilegiata sulla Terra. E se vogliamo salvare il bioma globale, non dobbiamo farlo. Se impariamo a osservare e studiare le piante in maniera diversa, rimarremo davvero stupiti da ciò che potremo scoprire.

Smart Plants

La discusión de la consciencia vegetal de Calvo también nos advierte contra la aplicación a las plantas de sesgos basados en los animales, debidos a nuestra incapacidad de apreciar cuán dinámicas son. Esta incapacidad se debe a que las plantas operan en una escala temporal diferente. Las plantas se mueven (principalmente creciendo en lugar de mediante la locomoción), pero lo hacen a una velocidad mucho más lenta que los animales. Esto hace que reconocer su conducta como conducta sea todo un desafío para nosotros, un sesgo que se ve un tanto atemperado por la fotografía a cámara lenta, como pueden confirmar los que hayan visto el reciente documental de la BBC “Green Planet”. “Planta Sapiens” nos fuerza, así, a considerar cómo las prioridades humanas podrían prejuzgar nuestra concepción de las plantas. This is the third book I have read by the cluster of academics working on plant intelligence systems: it would be fair to say I hated them both, so saying this is much better is not a huge endorsement, but, well I did. It also clarified for me why - despite my strong desire for ev

Scientific American What Is It Like to Be a Plant? - Scientific American

Planta Sapiens presents ‘fertile possibilities’ to the public and in doing so it has put science on notice. All plants are juggling to respond to climatic change. They are encoded to anticipate this, with their attentive neurobiochemistry driven by a helix that is so similar to that of the human family. Should we be surprised? No! We should be delighted with Professor Calvo’s seeding of scientific curiosity for the hope that it offers." - Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees The author uses all of this evidence to purport that plants need the same protection and ethical treatment as animals. In this regard, I don’t think he spent enough time explaining why or how. Sure, I think being lazy and not watering your houseplants until they die is unethical, but how would a farmer treat his crops differently when harvesting? Should humans avoid eating plants for the sake of their ability to feel and be harmed? And then what would we eat if not animals either? Or maybe the author is simply trying to make a point that self righteous vegans really have no moral ground to stand on as we are all dominating and harming our food sources regardless of our dietary habits.In Planta Sapiens, Calvo tries to show us that our green friends do far more than just blindly react. He believes they “plan ahead to achieve goals” and “proactively engage with their surroundings”, as they grapple with gradual changes in the soil or the sudden appearance of a predator. Some plants seem to ‘remember’ previous droughts, conserving water more effectively than plants that have never encountered long dry spells Plant blindness. That’s what scientists call the way we humans often fail to notice the staggering diversity and complexity of plant life around us. The philosopher Paco Calvo seems to be mercifully free from this affliction – he runs a laboratory in Spain studying plant behaviour, trying to figure out if that half-dead fern that you forgot to water on the windowsill ought to be classified as “intelligent”. Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross walk a fine line between expounding the health benefits of participating in art and arguing that such therapeutic effects need not be perfectly understood by science to be useful. Citing enough research to assuage skeptics, Your Brain on Art provides abundant ideas for engaging with the arts, ranging from the intuitive (memorizing dance choreography to stave off dementia) to the outlandish (sounding a tuning fork during a business meeting to reduce stress). No single method is for everyone, the authors maintain, but they throw enough spaghetti at the wall to inspire experimentation with new creative practices. — Maddie Bender Paco Calvo is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the Minimal Intelligence Lab (MINTLab) in the University of Murcia, Spain, where his research is primarily in exploring and experimenting with the possibility of plant intelligence. In his research at?MINTLab, he studies the ecological basis of plant intelligence by conducting experimental studies at the intersection of plant neurobiology and ecological psychology. He has given many talks on the topic of plant intelligence to academic and non-academic audiences around the world during the last decade. The debate is as much philosophical as scientific, fuelled by the meanings of words. It questions not only whether intelligence and awareness require a brain, but also what intelligence and awareness are. However, more is at stake than mere semantics. The penultimate chapter is incendiary. “Plant Liberation” rebuffs Peter Singer’s seminal book Animal Liberation, taking issue with its exclusion of plants from feeling pain. “Plants show actively avoidant behaviour,’ says Calvo, “and pain should be no less useful in the evolutionary history of rooted organisms than for those who can run away from it.” I endeavour to be ethical, but am not persuaded.