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These plants are a*holes. I bet if an unrelated plant was mowed down, they would not lift a finger to help.
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They'd be in the cell next to Seinfeld and Company.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
"Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ BraindeadComment
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Its chemical. Its certain arrangements of atoms having stronger electrostatic interactions with other arrangements of atoms. This can cause the transfer of certain chemical building blocks or the alteration of molecular structure. These events trigger certain downstream effects ranging from the mass movement of ions to the up or down regulation of certain genetic elements. Relayed, amplified and cross-checked across the network of interdependent processes that is roughly called 'metabolism', it produces response without anything as nebulous as having a mind. Its far far deeper and more primal than instinct.Originally posted by SlowwHand
What about brains and the ability to reason? It's instinct?
Just cause you see Bill from next door and think 'Hey, its Bill from next door' doesn't mean you're doing anything more complex than these plants. Probably less actually since you probably wouldn't be able to tell how closely you and Bill are related just by recognising him.Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
-Richard DawkinsComment
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Uhh, Slowwhand is doing something much more computationally complex than this recognition. I think that counts for something.
Anyway, the point was to dismiss the idea that this implies any sort of cognition on the part of the plants.Comment
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Starchild 's display of plantism is outrageous.BlahComment
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Yeah, that version actually seems more likely.Originally posted by Krill
I could buy into that. Doesn't even have to be widely different molecule, could just be a base molecule with differeing side chains depending on genetic difference coding for enzymes that attach the different groups.Comment
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And who made you the resident expert on biochemistry?Originally posted by Starchild
Define recognition. I see no reason why plants can't recognise genetically similar individuals though chemical means. Just cause they're stationary doesn't mean they're not biochemically complex, adaptive or able to respond.
If PH wasn't drunk off his ass in the corner of a pub somewhere in the dreary countryside he would probably be agreeing with you also.
"The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "Comment
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Computationally yes, chemically no :-)Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Uhh, Slowwhand is doing something much more computationally complex than this recognition. I think that counts for something.
Anyway, the point was to dismiss the idea that this implies any sort of cognition on the part of the plants.Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
-Richard DawkinsComment
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Lysenko was right!?!
Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...Comment
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How do you figure?Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Lysenko was right!?!
Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
-Richard DawkinsComment
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One of his claims was that plants of the same "class" wouldn't compete against one another.Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...Comment
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That's basically what I figured, although not the toxin. More likely the plant reacts to chemicals secreted by opposing plants, those chemicals trigger massive cellular growth/division in the rocketweed. But if the chemical is from a 'related' plant, the growth/division is dimished or halted.Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Intuition. The plants are almost certainly secreting a chemical whose composition varies widely from individual to individual based on a combination of genetic markers. If a plant detects a marker sufficiently different from its own, it secretes a toxin. Not terribly different from the human immune system...
Admittedly the immune system is fairly complex, but not in the way everyone seems to be taking this.
Much in the same way growth occurs in a plant that receives sunlight from one direction, except that it affects the entire plant, not just one side.I'm consitently stupid- Japher
I think that opinion in the United States is decidedly different from the rest of the world because we have a free press -- by free, I mean a virgorously presented right wing point of view on the air and available to all.- NedComment
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