|
Okay, so we all know that plants are the one of the lowest intelligent life forms on the planet. After all, they don't have a brain, no ability to think, no ability to intelligently manipulate their shape or form and no control over their existence. All of this is true of course, but if we think a little harder about what we know about plants, we have to question how true this is. How would we, for instance, explain the following behaviours?
Plants exhibit the ability to face their leaves and / or flowers towards the Sun in order to aid photosynthesis.
Plants exhibit the ability to open and close their leaves and / or flowers alternately during the day / night phase of their environment.
Plants exhibit hibernation characteristics during the winter months in order to conserve energy.
The Venus Fly-Trap not only senses but captures it's prey - a meat-eating plant.
Getting a bit more intelligent now, some plants contract their leaves immediately when touched, often opening up later on when the potential danger has passed.
Now with really inexplicable behaviour, some plants send out chemical signals when they are under attack by insects and animals - potentially enabling neighbouring plants to defend themselves. For instance; Acacia trees send out a chemical signal when animals attempt to eat their leaves that stimulates neighbouring Acacia trees to produce a foul-tasting chemical to prevent themselves being attacked.
How is any of this possible? Unlike animals, plants don't have a brain, they have no governing behaviour, they apparently have no core ability to control themselves in any way. This has to make you question the nature of intelligence, releasing ourselves from our human-centric understanding of the term, and how controlled behaviour is possible without a brain-like mechanism to co-ordinate it.
Through pondering this question, and researching some answers, I found this [paper] with a detailed explanation.
[Posted 10/15/2006] |
