3 ms·

Plants have no brains or analog at all, plats reacting and signalling is no different than a bacteria moving along a concentration gradient. The animals I ment

• slothtrop 4y ago
  > plats reacting and signalling is no different than a bacteria moving along a concentration gradient. No different than pain receptors, you mean. > Plants have no brains or analog at all No brain, yes. But what of "no analog" if the qualifier for suffering is deliberately clouded in ambiguity? The only reason the brain matters qua suffering is owing to the capacity for consciousness. Plants have no brain, well, sardines have no cerebral cortex. If you're going to trivialize the cerebral cortex based on whim/feeling, you can do the same for the whole brain. By extension it makes as much sense to attribute the possibility of consciousness to insects as it does to plants, because you're throwing the particulars of the brain out the window. Some "magical unknown thing 'X'" is giving them consciousness - but there's no reason "magical unknown thing 'X'" has to be specific to a brain.
  • Dylan16807 4y ago
    > No different than pain receptors, you mean. Not the best argument. I don't really mind my pain receptors going off if the signal doesn't make it to my spine. Do you?
    • slothtrop 4y ago
      If the signal "doesn't make it", it's an ineffectual signal. Are you suggesting plants have ineffectual signals?
      • Dylan16807 4y ago
        I'm suggesting that more localized signals are not the same as a pain response in a centralized blob of neurons.