
The Sensitive Plant - anarbadalov
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/memory/sensitive-plant
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chris_st
If you liked this article, you might enjoy the book "Are we smart enough to
know how smart animals are?" by Frans de Waal [0]. He does a great job of
describing all kinds of surprisingly intelligent animal behaviors, and some
very clever tests to decide how and when they apply.

Interestingly, about 30% or so of the book is kind of a rant against other
animal behaviorists who have an "animals are stupid, and no amount of proof to
the contrary will shake that belief" attitude. But that yields some pretty
entertaining stories (and interesting experiments) as well :-)

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Know-
Animals/dp/0393...](https://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Know-
Animals/dp/0393353664/)

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James_Henry
Some of the potential consequences of plant cognition are really remarkable.

[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gustavo_Souza4/publicat...](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gustavo_Souza4/publication/336445583_Plants_are_intelligent_here%27s_how/links/5da1044a299bf116fe9ed2e2/Plants-
are-intelligent-heres-how.pdf)

Also, the research and ideas into how plants could possibly have cognition is
fascinating as well.

[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15592324.2019.17...](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15592324.2019.1710661)

~~~
carapace
In his talk Michael Levin points out that all the cellular "machinery" that
neurons use to think is present throughout all cells, it's just concentrated
and accelerated in neurons. In other words, all life thinks.

"What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System"
(youtube.com)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736698](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18736698)

Gregory Bateson (cybernetic anthropologist) postulated that "mind" was ambient
in Nature, and that evolution and thought are two different aspects of the
same phenomenon.

Here we have science filling in the details and yes, "brains" (in the sense of
smarts, not actual ganglia or organs) are indeed ambient in Nature.

And, since self-regulating systems must have models of themselves to work
efficiently, and since life is a self-regulating system across multiple
fractally-intertwined subsystems that are themselves self-regulating, we
should expect to find a "virtual world" of "beings" and other phenomenon.
(Which, of course, we do. E.g. Nature spirits and plant Devas and others.)

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doodlebugging
This plant grows all over Texas. I can't count the times I've had the pleasure
of introducing someone new to hiking or the outdoors how this plant responds
to stimuli. I was thrilled when I found some growing on my land here in north
Texas.

Well written article. I really enjoyed this post.

~~~
gumby
I used to spend hours playing with them in my great grandparents’ back yard. I
had no idea they grew wild in North America!

~~~
doodlebugging
[Distribution information - LBJ Wildflower
Site]([https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MIMI22](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MIMI22))

I find it growing around my place in the rockiest parts of the yard.

I also found seeds for sale on Amazon for less than $9. Crazy. Maybe I should
cultivate a new income stream.

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pstuart
A fascinating episode about plants and sound:
[https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/smart...](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/smarty-
plants)

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viburnum
Really enjoyed this, thanks.

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ecoled_ame
botany started in the late 18th century? tell that to ancient peruvians
cultivating the potato or pretty much any ancient culture. i can’t stand so
many scientific articles asserting that science began 300 years ago. it’s so
short-sighted... sigh...

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empath75
Modern science certainly began within the last few hundred years, of which
botany is a discipline. Obviously people were studying the world prior to the
invention of the scientific method, but that doesn’t mean they were doing
science the way it’s understood today.

