Trees Are Conscious

Wonder just what the 'olden oaks' would make of mankind's progress during their lifetimes....

Witzend wrote:

"I will admit to feeling a little bit bad now and then, when I slice the little sprouts off a potato prior to peeling and cooking it. This is a living thing that could grow into a plant - and I’m killing it! "

Each of us must decide the values we live by, as that is the responsibility of adult human beings. Do you think that values are relative so that , for instance, it's less bad to kill and eat a plant than to kill and eat a sheep?

Neither the sheep nor the plant deserves to be killed and eaten, but the plant is less sentient than the sheep.

We had to have a large tree cut down as it was becoming a danger but all of the summer afterwards, the roots kept sending up babies all over the lawn. It kept trying and trying to survive ☹

We did plant another tree.

M0nica

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Curiously enough I read an article about the beginning of life on earth only this week that made me realise that all eating, unless you live on mineral matter uncontaminated by bacteria excepted. is predation

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Starving?
I suppose if you eat legumes then you're eating the babies of sentient beings.

I'll never look at a pea in the same way again!

I've never worried about digging sprouts out of potatoes. 😁

M0nica

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Curiously enough I read an article about the beginning of life on earth only this week that made me realise that all eating, unless you live on mineral matter uncontaminated by bacteria excepted. is predation

I will admit to feeling a little bit bad now and then, when I slice the little sprouts off a potato prior to peeling and cooking it. This is a living thing that could grow into a plant - and I’m killing it! 😱

I have two conifers in my front garden, they are taller than my house, in the back I have a weeping ash, acers, two which I am unsure of their names and sambucas negris, I talk to them all.

I have filled the borders with shrubs most of which remain green all year round, not sure I could live anywhere without trees and plants.

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Curiously enough I read an article about the beginning of life on earth only this week that made me realise that all eating, unless you live on mineral matter uncontaminated by bacteria excepted. is predation

I do hope it survives JaneJudge. I bought a small acer some years ago - it was from one of those bargain outlets that sell everything.

I wanted to keep in in a pot so I could move it around on the patio. However, it was not at all happy in the pot so a space had to be found in the garden. It is now flourishing and it is such a joy to watch the bronze/red leaves moving on the breeze.

Goo luck with yours JJ

It is an acer

JaneJudge

I cried because one of our trees looks like it has died in all this sodden weather over winter. So we’ve dig it up and put it in a pot 😭 to give it a chance please all 🙏 for it

Talk to it.

What kind of tree is it?

I cried because one of our trees looks like it has died in all this sodden weather over winter. So we’ve dig it up and put it in a pot 😭 to give it a chance please all 🙏 for it

😁

It's probably sending out a warning.
"Watch out!! Mind your plums!!!"

I typed wood-wide web but autocorrect knew better, sorry!

As well as scent, pheromones etc, trees communicate through something known as the world-wide web - ie the fungi which grow along their roots.

We had to have an ash tree cut down in our garden, sadly, but still the fungi grow along the root system.
I'm not sure which other tree it's communicating with though. A plum?

CanadianGran

I believe scientists are on the fence about whether or not plants are conscious beings.

But I do believe that plants can communicate and react to stimuli, but on what level? Has anyone heard of the Japanese practice of forest-bathing? They say that spending quiet time within a forest can ease stress and help with depression. I know I have always found comfort amongst a wooded area, since I was a child.

Yes, I've heard of it, and found it interesting.
I think seeing ourselves as part of nature is always good for the psyche.

To know that we are "of it" instead of in charge of it.

I believe they are sentient

I think life on earth transcends the principles of consciousness through a brain or nervous system. I believe that all forms of life, from grass to humans are linked through a spirit of energy.

I believe scientists are on the fence about whether or not plants are conscious beings.

But I do believe that plants can communicate and react to stimuli, but on what level? Has anyone heard of the Japanese practice of forest-bathing? They say that spending quiet time within a forest can ease stress and help with depression. I know I have always found comfort amongst a wooded area, since I was a child.

Mollygo wrote:

"I remember being told that grass being mown sends anguished messages."

I think this is held to be true by scientists. Would you say a feeling such as anguish is a sign of being alive not dead , and a natural being not a computer?

AAGA4 wrote:
"I love trees. Whichever window I look out of there are trees. I think they must be conscious at some level."'
Like you, I believe that there are different levels of consciousness. Besides levels of consciousness, do you think there may be different types of consciousness?
You obviously have feelings for trees. Maybe we have to have feeling for things before we can understand them. AI devices can't have feelings . Am I right, and does this make AI potentially dangerous??

Winterwhite, I like your designation "trees/plants,

Trees/plants have neither brains or neurons. Maybe trees/plants have some other system for collating and learning from the information that they gather from their environments.

Winterwhite, I understand that vegetable systems don't have neurons but that such as trees and other vegetable things communicate by pheromones ,
but not by electro- chemical nerve action like animals do.
Should we respect trees and their lives even if they are different from us?

Perhaps trees and small annual plants that we see in gardens and hedgerows can experience what happens to them and others. Who knows.

Keeping quiet wrote:
"It will be a very long time until we can reproduce something as complex as a tree using AI though I suspect some will try."

I agree. Would you consider that consciousness is caused by complexity, or is there something else that only some living things have?

Horses and fish have proven, identifiable brains. Can the same be said of trees/plants?