In our image, things have no consciousness, mainly because plants have no nerve tissue and do not have consciousness like animals.
It may become a proposition that plants have no consciousness. First of all, plants also have the same characteristics as other living things, and they also have the characteristics of seeking benefits and avoiding harm. This characteristic can effectively enable plants to cope with changes in the external environment. This reaction of plants is usually very slow, and even no changes can be observed.
We cannot directly observe the changes in plants with our naked eyes. This state is very subtle. Even if we stare at the plants for several hours, we will not feel any changes in the plants. However, when we observe the plants overnight or after a few days, huge changes have already occurred. If you use a camera to shoot the growth process of the plants at this time, you will find that the changes in the plants are very obvious. This can clearly show that time is moving too fast.
Plants do not make sounds or move, but they are very complex organisms. They can adapt well to changes in the surrounding environment. With the rapid development of science, people often can’t help but wonder whether plants have perception and whether they can perceive changes in the surroundings like humans.
Just a few days ago, a group of scholars conducted an experiment to test whether plants have consciousness using radio waves. The division of labor in this four-person team was very clear, and one scholar played the role of the butcher. When the scholar started to insult and ridicule the plants every time he walked in front of them on the first day, the radio waves on the instrument seemed to change.
On the second day, the insulted plant tore up another pot of plants. At this time, the radio waves changed explosively. The scholars believed that the plant felt that the butcher had killed another pot of plants. On the third day, when the scholar walked in front of the plant, the radio waves also changed. Then another scholar comforted and praised the plant, and it was obvious that the radio waves were in a stable state. When the butcher scholar walked in front of the plant again, the radio waves showed a peak value. From all aspects, plants have memory ability and can identify people or animals that threaten them. In fact, when plants are threatened, they will release biochemical substances through the air to different locations on the same plant to achieve threatening signal communication. Scholars believe that plants are continuously integrating plans and responding through signal feedback loop strategy mechanisms. Scholars believe that this method is similar to our human self-consciousness. If, apart from the inherent biological connection, it is not psychological and structural differences, the performance function of plants is actually very different from that of animals. Plants must not be able to observe changes in the surroundings through their eyes, nor do they have the ability to think with their brains. Perhaps plants have the possibility of consciousness.
A professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo said that when studying how plants use chemical defenses to identify and respond to insect behavior, plants perceive changes in things in the environment and integrate these sensations into behavioral responses that are beneficial to themselves. Maybe this is not the essence of consciousness. The professor said that plants are often overlooked because they do not have special organs that vertebrates use to perceive their surroundings. But the professor believes that plants can form memories because they are conscious organisms. Plants will retain experience information and respond to changes in surrounding plants. This is absolutely related to their previous experience, and plants will pass on this experience to their offspring. The professor said that it was found that inheritance information is retained in several generations of organisms, which is also a feature of all organisms. According to scholars’ research, plants have memory and perception abilities.