In any case, any other alleged evidence of this sort cannot be considered a sign of possession of consciousness by the plant as long as it is only based on behavioral observations. But this by no means implies that plants are organisms with physical structures that cause mental experiences, a center of consciousness that allows them to experience and appreciate music and improve their growth on that basis (we may note that the taste in music is something very culturally specific, which further shows the absurdity of the pseudo-scientific assertion that “plants like music”). It may be that certain sound waves somehow benefit plant growth, and that these waves overlap with those that humans find pleasant. It is also sometimes claimed that certain plants grow better if there is music in the environment, or if people talk to them. However, exhibiting a physical response of this type does not require the capacity for subjective experience. One idea that has no scientific backing but which has received some support is the view that plants have experiences because they respond to certain stimuli. Plants do not have experiences: the response to external stimuli is not sentience These stimuli would serve no purpose, and would involve an unnecessary expenditure of energy. For example, plants can’t run away from a threat or forage for a type of food they enjoy. Therefore, it would make no sense for beings who lack the capacity to engage in such behavior to have the capacity to feel. Moreover, the possession of such a structure would make no evolutionarily sense.Īs shown in What beings are conscious, the capacity to feel arises in evolutionary history due to its usefulness in motivating animals, through positive and negative stimuli, to engage in or abstain from fitness-increasing behavior. They do not have a nerve structure or any physical structure complex enough to allow for the possession of consciousness. Living entities that are not animals have a very simple structure. Structures that allow for the development of consciousness appear very early in the development of animals, yet do not ever appear in living things that are not animals. Evolutionary logic and living beings that aren’t animals None of them has a mechanism for transmission of information similar to that present in animals with centralized nervous systems. However, among all organisms in our biosphere, none of the non-animals such as plants, fungi, protists, bacteria and archaea has such a structure. This is, in principle, entirely possible. Thus, a system organized in an equally complex fashion could result in a sentient organism. It could be that beings other than animals possess different physical structures that fulfill the same function as a centralized nervous system. Looking at the anatomy of a fungus, bacteria or plant, for example, we will not find any nerves. No other living entity has a nervous system. Possession of a centralized nervous system is what enables animals to have experiences, and only animals possess such systems. The reasons that lead to this conclusion are as follows: Only among animals can we find the physical structures that enable sentience There is the possibility that a number of animals with very simple centralized nervous systems are not sentient either, but this is an open question and cannot be settled yet. This includes bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, plants and certain animals. Beings that have no centralized nervous systems are not sentient.
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