We May Be Surrounded by Trillions of Conscious Beings, Research Suggests—And They Aren't Human

Anesthesia reduces plants and respond to plants' ability to perceive and respond to the world. And this has some researchers to claim that a form of consciousness. There's also been quite a few claims about fungi possessing a form of consciousness. After all, they can speak to each other. They have as many as 50 words. Now, I am not somebody who rejects things outright just because they sound silly, but I have to tell you, it's very complicated. We don't really have a good definition of consciousness, self, and we're even worse on sentience. There's a great deal of debate on what constitutes something that is sentient. It's the capacity to feel, to understand the environment and react to it. Anesthetics and plants: no pain, no brain, and therefore no consciousness. But let's get into anesthetics and plants, because many plants can move things, like Venus flytraps and mimosas. Some plants, like mimic plants, can see other plants and mimic them. And that includes plastic plants, so they do have some form of vision. Some plants can communicate. They can communicate the information that they're being damaged to other plants so they can hunker down and start preparing because something is munching on them. And yes, some plants can identify kin just by sight. That does not mean that plants are experiencing a wakeful or sleepful state, because plants don't the same way that we do. Anesthesia is designed to work on our brains. It just so happens that the structure of the molecules also interferes with some things like ion channels in plants. This does not mean that plants are or are not conscious. This is just not the measuring stick to use. If I were tasked with arguing that plants are conscious, I would go from the perspective that they can identify kin because they clearly know what's related to them. That is more have a perception of self than anything else. But I do not buy it. But what if fungi, they know 50 or more words, fungi that have been tested, that they communicate involves spiking patterns, not dissimilar to our own brains work. And it seems they're capable of things like remembering. Just because fungi are talking, this does not indicate consciousness. But it does freak me out. And it certainly could be part of it. If you place fungi near where bait trap and then move them, they will go right back to the food. They know where it is. And if you place larger bait near them, they'll abandon that one and then go to the larger bait. They can also learn shapes, basic geometry. And no one is entirely sure how they're doing it. We don't know. There are some theories. Does this indicate consciousness? No. It just indicates that fungi are smarter than we thought. My answer to all of this is that it doesn't really matter. And that's the same thing I tell students when they ask me if viruses are alive. And I study and publish on virology. Defining them by our narrow framework will not change the nature of their existence. Now, if we're asking these questions because we're considering ethical treatment, that's a different question. And my answer there is, we should always strive no matter what we're working with. And try to treat AI nicely, even if it's not having an experience right now. What if it grows to have an experience? And it remembers? Hope you've enjoyed this. Follow for more.