What if plants were animals like any other?
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What if plants were animals like any other?
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Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#2Watched a brillo doc by DW the other day, got me all full of chills around how crazy nature is and how we take for granted it's sentient qualities:
What can fungi teach us?- - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbcIQpmiZ3Y
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#3[deleted]
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#4This seems like a rabbit whole, at some point there's no objective ethics, you pick your line. Are you going to include bacteria, yeast, common viruses, dust mites, there's plenty to choose from.
I think one thing that seems relevant to humans, is we seem to be bothered only once we can relate to the other being in a more explicit way. This is true even between our peers. Maybe as we understand more and more of other creatures so will our empathy.
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#5This seems like a rabbit whole, at some point there's no objective ethics, you pick your line. Are you going to include bacteria, yeast, common viruses, dust mites, there's plenty to choose from. I think one thing that seems relevant to humans, is we seem to be bothered only once we can relate to the other being in a more explicit way. This is true even between our peers. Maybe as we understand more and more of other…
Jainism takes this pretty far, I've been learning a bit about it recently and it's pretty interesting as far as ancient religions go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism
Particularly good if you're interested in diving in more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c33XPyljUiw
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#6For those who would like to read more about this, I enjoyed The Secret Life Of Plants by Thompkins and Bird https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99442.The_Secret_Life_of...
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#7If you spend enough time watching nature videos like I do, you will notice that the vast majority of animals are eaten alive by their predators. It's slow, and exceedingly painful and it is ubiquitous. So even if plants were conscious, I honestly don't care. A bear would eat me alive in the most painful way possible and they wouldn't even think a second about it. Neither will I.
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#8while I do agree that sometimes this seems a bit newagey or, to use an obvious word, "treehugger", I've grown to appreciate the insights from the true believers. I don't always go as far as they do, but I do find there are plenty of surprises with plants.
When researchers opened their eyes and looked, they could find concrete proof that plants often communicated and nurtured their young. They shared and built communities. They worked together to fight enemies. Sure, they don't use the same tactics as animals, but if you look at their progress in the abstract, it's easy to see how they're not sedentary or stupid.
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#9> Worse, the production of one animal protein requires 7 to 10 plant proteins. The argument is a strictly accounting one. Even if plant suffering were of the same intensity as animal suffering, omnivores would produce seven to ten times more suffering than plant lovers alone.
So, seven proteins make seven ... sufferings? Proteins are a measure of suffering?
Re: What if plants were animals like any other?
#10What a load of nonsense