• Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Bro, not only are they sentient, the trees fucking hate us. Allergies aren’t just something that happens as a quirk of evolution. Those trees are filling the air with their jizz in a coordinated effort to take us out bro. The trees are trying to kill us bro.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Consider that human neuron makes around 7000 connections, while plant cells via plasmodesma may make from 1k to 100k connections.

    We have such a human-centric and focused interpretation of knowing, and what qualifies as intelligence. Something that these recent series of advances should impress upon you is that maybe, complexity alone is enough. Obviously whatever we’ve built out of silicon isn’t something we’d describe as intelligence. But the hint that maybe just ‘having a preposterous number of connections’ might be sufficient for emergent properties like reason and memory and identity.

    So then what about plants? Discount the incredible relationships they make with fungi. Just plants are foreign enough to us to maybe give you a bit of caution. They are easy to take for granted because they are so ubiquitous. Internally they’re as networked as you or I. They’re constantly gathering information about the world around them. What does a plant know of the wind or the sun? Where would a plant put its ‘self’ if it had one?

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      We have such a human-centric and focused interpretation of knowing, and what qualifies as intelligence.

      This has been my response to all of the bullshit alien claims recently. It’s always some kind of very human-centric idea of a bipedal being using a second thing as a vehicle. Just that entire concept is so human-centric.

      If extraterrestrial ilfe exists, it’s not going to resemble humans. Unless it’s literally our cosmic ancestors or some shit.

        • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Vegan diets require less plants to be killed then an omnivorous diet, so if you’re right then that’s a stronger argument to be vegan.

            • Slatlun@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              Their point is that if plants can suffer, and assuming we still want to eat, less plants die or are maimed on a vegan diet than on an omnivorous diet because livestock eats plants too and the conversion to meat is inefficient.

              That means vegan diet is the way for less plant suffering even though you eat them directly. In fact it is because you would eat them directly.

  • jeremyparker@programming.dev
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    8 months ago

    Y’all mf’ers need to read The Secret Life of Plants. It’s fascinating.

    It’s from the 1970s or 80s, and it talks about this stuff in extreme depth - plant communication, plants understanding their environment… Long range communication & telepathic plants…

    You gotta understand, there’s absolutely zero science to it – TSLoP is richly detailed with unconfirmed anecdotal evidence, some lady said this, a man from Tucson said this other thing, etc. If it was real, it would be world changing, but, at this point, it’s a pretty crazy claim that would need some pretty crazy evidence.

    But it’s still fascinating – both from it’s own kayfabe, like, imagine a world in which this was real – and in terms of “conspiracy theories” – is not a conspiracy but it’s clear bullshit so the who and why of it’s believers is interesting. Because it’s not like most conspiracies, which usually eventually lead back to antisemitic and Christian supremacist stuff. TSLoP is a legit leftist conspiracy, all its own thing.

    So, if you see The Secret Life of Plants at a used bookstore for a couple dollars, pick it up, it’s really neat.

    • BluesF@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I like this comment for many reasons, but I’ll mention just that I have never heard the word “kayfabe” until today and I love it!

      • jeremyparker@programming.dev
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        8 months ago

        I hadn’t heard it either until FD Signifier used it in a video. I guess it originally referred to the “in universe” fiction of professional wrestling, but FD took it out of that context and now I use it all the time – well, it doesn’t come up that often, but it’s a concept that’s needed a word for a while now… Especially now that “alternative facts” are becoming so prevalent.