What if plants had feelings?

[Neverfly]

Shoot.


Me carnivorous predator.

Plants are what food eats.

 

[Mercutio]

Then every time you stepped on a grape, it would let out a little whine...

 

[Skwinty]

I refer the OP to this link.
See the Backster effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_perception_(paranormal)


and


http://skepdic.com/plants.html

 

[blobru]

I did a report on this in middle school. The experiment that always stood out for me was when they hooked up the electrodes to the plants to "read" their "feelings." Whenever they gave the plants water or sunshine or love or companionship or conversation or music, the readings went one way. And when they gave the plants abuse, or destroyed another plant in front of one of the plants, the readings went the other way. But here's the fun part: when they killed a plant with the intention of using it for food, the readings of the other plants went the "good" way.

So - I'm not necessarily convinced that plants have feelings, but if they do, I think they're down with being eaten. But not with being destroyed for no reason.

I admit, I would like to know much more about how such an experiment was conducted.

For example: How would the plant know the intentions of the killer? Do you say aloud, "I am killing you as waste!"
"I am killing you as food!"
And then commit the dastardly deed and observe the readings?

If you can name them, please do

Dates, places, etc of their experiments too, please

Sound like the experiments of Dr. Jagadishchandra Bose, and later of CIA polygrapher Cleve Backster, popularized in the book "The Secret Life of Plants^WP" in the '70's.

Here's a summary of Bose's findings from a believer at Yahoo! Answers.

And a review of a book on plant telepathy by Backster.


ETA: & Skwinty's wiki link.

 

[dafydd]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3912162.The_Secret_Life_of_Plants

 

[DecayingAngel]

How odd--I just read someone's signature on another board that went something like:

"If trees could scream, would we be so anxious to cut them down?"

It is food for thought, if only in a philosophical way.

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

"If trees could scream, would we be so anxious to cut them down?"

Is there another way to shut them up?

 

[MRC_Hans]

I did a report on this in middle school. The experiment that always stood out for me was when they hooked up the electrodes to the plants to "read" their "feelings." Whenever they gave the plants water or sunshine or love or companionship or conversation or music, the readings went one way. And when they gave the plants abuse, or destroyed another plant in front of one of the plants, the readings went the other way. But here's the fun part: when they killed a plant with the intention of using it for food, the readings of the other plants went the "good" way.

So - I'm not necessarily convinced that plants have feelings, but if they do, I think they're down with being eaten. But not with being destroyed for no reason.

Mmm, yes, someone wrote a book about that, way back in the sixties. "The Secret Life of Plants" I think was the title. Actually, he was pretty vague about his methods, and what could be gleaned didn't look good. I think you could get exactly whatever reading you desired from his hook-up.

I contemplated repeating his experiments with a proper set-up, but never got around to it.

However, from a Darwinistic POV, it makes no sense: Pain and fear are things we feel so we may get ourselves out of harm's way. Since a plan't can't do anything to get out of harm's way, it has no use for pain or fear.

- And, of course, it hasn't anything that even remotely resembles a nervous system.

Hans

ETA: Link to info on mentioned book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Plants

 

[Alex Libman]

Yet another argument against the arbitrary emotional drivel behind the "animal rights" insanity. Rights come from the capacity to be an economic actor, that is to reason, take responsibility, and respect the rights of others. "Feelings" are irrelevant.

 

[Lonewulf]

The "animal rights" insanity sure can't compare to the "Anarcho-Capitalism" insanity.

 

[Piggy]

How odd--I just read someone's signature on another board that went something like:

"If trees could scream, would we be so anxious to cut them down?"

It is food for thought, if only in a philosophical way.

"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." -Jack Handey

 

[Skwinty]

"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." -Jack Handey

I read the secret life of plants many years ago.
I recall the story the book relates in the beginning, about Indians selecting a tree to cut down for their totem pole.

The medicine man leads his band of tree cutters into the forest. He selects a tree and the band of tree cutters do this dance around the tree. The tree gets such a fright as it realises its about to be cut down and screams in anticipated agony. The other trees faint from shock and they promptly cut down the tree next to the selected tree so it feels no pain, and thus would have the "right spirit" to represent their totem pole.

Another good one was a piece of a cactus plant being used as a witness in a murder trial.

 

[Kopji]

oh yeah, sure. This was one of my first science projects. Being raised in a family of total electronic nerds, I found a schematic for testing the 'responsiveness' of plants and built a meter that was supposed to measure... ... well heck I don't even remember now.

I do remember my dad helping grind off one side of two copper pennies to use as electrodes and helping me solder wires to them. (Ah the family that tortures plants together stays together.)

I selected a favorite philodendron (it had large friendly looking leaves), and proceeded to take measurements over several days while I talked cheerfully to it. It died. And so did the next one when I tried just measuring without all the cheerful talk. My report being due, I did what pretty much all elementary school researchers do - doctored my data so that it looked more interesting than it was.

In hindsight, I think it might have been the silicone conductive lubricant I used between the electrodes and the leaf.

 

[Neverfly]

Mythbusters did an episode covering some of this.
Does talking to plants help their growth?

They took a bunch of bean plants and in soundproofed separate greenhouses and subjected each group to different recordings.

One group had Muzak and enya type stuff, another monotonous readings and yet another had loud heavy metal music.

The heavy metal group grew the best. By far.

Which proves that heavy metal rocks.

Well... actually, their best guess was that the heavy metal was most akin to actual wildlife. Anyone that has spent some time in the wilds of Africa can attest to this one; Wildlife is very loud and raucous.

 

[Piggy]

Well... actually, their best guess was that the heavy metal was most akin to actual wildlife. Anyone that has spent some time in the wilds of Africa can attest to this one; Wildlife is very loud and raucous.

It may have been the persistent, throbbing bass, which may have been sufficient to keep the plants subtly vibrating.

Plants respond to wind or other kinds of movement, like being brushed against, with more vigorous growth.

For example, tomato plants that are regularly touched and tousseled are more vigorous than ones which aren't.

Perhaps the stimulation of low-level vibration induces the same response.

The "wildlife sounds" theory sounds bogus to me.

 

[Neverfly]

It may have been the persistent, throbbing bass, which may have been sufficient to keep the plants subtly vibrating.

Plants respond to wind or other kinds of movement, like being brushed against, with more vigorous growth.

For example, tomato plants that are regularly touched and tousseled are more vigorous than ones which aren't.

Perhaps the stimulation of low-level vibration induces the same response.

The "wildlife sounds" theory sounds bogus to me.

So if you want good pumpkins you need a vibrator? I dunno... touching and tussling seems effective enough to me.

 

[RoboTimbo]

Mythbusters did an episode covering some of this.
Does talking to plants help their growth?

They also did an episode hooking up a plant to a polygraph and subjecting it to abuse. They got interesting results when they (the testers) were in close proximity to the plants but no reactions from the plants when they (the plants) were isolated inside a metal shipping container and subjected to the same sorts of abuse.

I don't believe they gave a definitive conclusion of what they thought might be happening.

 

[fuelair]

I admit, I would like to know much more about how such an experiment was conducted.

For example: How would the plant know the intentions of the killer? Do you say aloud, "I am killing you as waste!"
"I am killing you as food!"
And then commit the dastardly deed and observe the readings?

Obviously the plants are psychic.


Much better than psychotic.

 

[Pardalis]

If plants had feelings, it would give new meaning to the expression "to suck a lemon".

 

[bickerer]

So what on earth (literally) am I allowed to eat?? Without it screaming it's angst at me? Dirt? No, I'd be wounding all the millions of little microbes. Plastic perhaps? Most life forms on this planet exist by eating some other life form, we're all fodder for something else.