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Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence

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Fundamentally, Calvo’s important book is about changing our perception of plants. He points out that without them “human life would be untenable”. As we confront the reality of the climate crisis, we need to accept plants as “co-inhabitants of the planet”. Grasping this reality could lead to a fundamental shift in our view of our own role in the biosphere, and help us to work to rebalance our destructive effects on it. As in the movie Arrival, embracing the otherness of a fundamentally different form of life could transform both our understanding of ourselves and our role on the planet. Aquellos que vivieron los años 70 pueden tener la mala fortuna de asociar “sensibilidad vegetal” con el libro “The Secret Life of Plants”, una exploración exitosa en lo comercial, pero ampliamente pseudocientífica, de la vida emocional de las plantas, de las que se sugiere que se originaron en una realidad paralela habitada por otros “seres cósmicos” tales como elfos y gnomos. Más recientemente, sin embargo, un área de investigación en rápido desarrollo en la intersección entre la botánica y la ciencia cognitiva ha reclamado gradualmente la credibilidad del estudio de la inteligencia y la conducta de las plantas, con raíces en el trabajo de genios como Charles Darwin y Jagadish Chandra Bose, un pionero menos conocido pero igualmente consumado. En “Planta Sapiens”, Paco Calvo lleva las implicaciones de este trabajo hasta sus límites, invitando a los lectores a explorar un mundo diferente, donde las plantas aprenden, anticipan y quizá incluso tienen experiencias en su modo propio, idiosincrático.

Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence

In Planta Sapiens, Paco Calvo, a leading figure in the philosophy of plant signaling and behavior, offers an entirely new perspective on plants’ worlds, showing for the first time how we can use tools developed to study animal cognition in a quest to understand plant intelligence. Plants learn from experience: wild strawberries can be taught to link light intensity with nutrient levels in the soil, and flowers can time pollen production to pollinator visits. Plants have social intelligence, releasing chemicals from their roots and leaves to speak to and identify one another. They make decisions about where to invest their growth, judging risk based on the resources available. Their individual preferences vary, too—plants have personalities. Such astonishing findings have led the book's author, among others, to controversially refer to the study of these processes as “plant neurobiology.” Calvo goes even further, suggesting that plants are cognitive beings and may have “diffused consciousness.” When a vine sends out tendrils, it does so with intent, he writes, using light and chemicals to explore and then home in on a target. The author claims the plant is not “simply reacting,” but it is “making meaning” through inner awareness, perhaps similarly to an octopus whose consciousness seems spread among its arms. Although electrical and chemical signaling inside plants are well established, assertions about plant cognition and possible consciousness are highly contentious. A rebuttal by some animal and plant scientists of Calvo and his colleagues' earlier work states that not only are such ideas wrong, but they harm scientific progress by misleading students and redirecting funding. Remarkable.... Calvo has a wonderfully infectious enthusiasm for his subject that makes this book, for all its complex science, a joy to read. He challenges us to set aside our ‘zoocentric’ perspective and to change our view of plants radically: from mechanisms akin to robots to complex organisms with a range of behaviours, responding to and anticipating their environments. In doing so, he has written a genuinely mind-expanding book. What an intriguing book! I absolutely loved it. As a gardener, it’s always been obvious to me that plants have feelings. The way that hydrangeas perk up after being watered or the way zinnia leaves fold upward to shield their wound after being cut are obvious signs these species have feelings. The author uses all of this evidence to purport that plants need the same protection and ethical treatment as animals. In this regard, I don’t think he spent enough time explaining why or how. Sure, I think being lazy and not watering your houseplants until they die is unethical, but how would a farmer treat his crops differently when harvesting? Should humans avoid eating plants for the sake of their ability to feel and be harmed? And then what would we eat if not animals either? Or maybe the author is simply trying to make a point that self righteous vegans really have no moral ground to stand on as we are all dominating and harming our food sources regardless of our dietary habits.Simply by being part of this philosophical sea change, Planta Sapiens is an important book, if not especially compelling. It does contain some interesting vignettes. I had no idea, for instance, that the smell of freshly cut grass comes from the chemicals released by the wounded plant to warn nearby grasses to mobilise their defences. At least now I have an excuse for not mowing the lawn: I don’t want to hurt its feelings.

Planta Sapiens - Il Saggiatore Planta Sapiens - Il Saggiatore

Planta Sapiens] takes readers on a journey into a seemingly alien world [...] Read this fascinating book and your view of nature will never be the same again" Consider the movements of Mimosa plants, for example. A poke from a human finger usually causes the plants' leaves to shrink and fold against the stem. This response takes mere seconds—an excellent defense against herbivores. But after a few minutes in a bell jar suffused with anesthetic fumes, Mimosa becomes unresponsive. The same drugs quiet the gyrations of pea tendrils and the clenching of Venus flytraps.Mancuso, S., y Viola, A. (2015). Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence (J. Benham, Trans.). Washington, DC: Island Press. Esto es especialmente evidente en la discusión de la ética vegetal. Como indica Calvo, el estatus moral de las plantas puede resultarnos extraordinariamente inconveniente. Ya nos esforzamos bastante para reconocer el sufrimiento animal cuando tomamos decisiones dietéticas, ¡imaginemos tener que considerar también el bienestar vegetal! Pero que algo sea cierto es independiente de si uno puede aceptarlo o no; en filosofía permanecemos vigilantes de la falacia llamada “el argumento de la incredulidad”. Y al contrario, que haya malos argumentos a favor de una idea no significa que no los haya también buenos. Uno puede no resultar convencido del estatus moral de las plantas, quizá porque se mantiene justificadamente escéptico sobre la consciencia vegetal, pero sin duda, que “Planta Sapiens” y la investigación que revisa genere debate (quizá enconado) sobre tales temas es prueba de su valor intelectual.

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