Give thanks it isn’t us!
Slicing off the genitals
Of the fully conscious
With a sharp knife
Without a thought.
Placing the severed genitals
In a basket
Without regard,
Without knowing.
Carrying the spoils inside
To the sink
With a smile,
Looking pleased.
Trimming the genitalia
With scissors
A careful eye,
A steady hand.
Arranging them in a vase
With water,
To admire
Their prettiness.
Opher 26.12.2019
I always wonder about consciousness. It is such a mystery. What is conscious? Are rocks, planets and stars conscious?
What an absurdity.
Yet is it?
Is consciousness a product of the electrical activity in our brains?
Then that same electrical activity takes place through a plant. Could they be fully conscious? Do they feel pain?
Because they do not shriek and scream does not mean they cannot feel, does it?
Feel grateful that plants do not collect the genitalia of animals!
Opher – Interesting poem, quite startling on the first read!
I guess in some ways we are harvested by Nature as we are part of a never ending grand cycle of birth and death. What Nature gives in creating life, she takes back when we return to the earth with our essential chemical compounds absorbed and reused for assimilating, or supporting life elsewhere. Thankfully, most of us die with our bits and pieces still intact. (Better to go out whole than in parts!)
Botanical consciousness, constituting a limited response to external stimuli, could be said to be merely genetically encoded instructions that have been fine-tuned to give the appearance of intentional action, as a result of countless generations of natural selection. Sentience, if that is an appropriate word, might however extend to awareness of the immediate environment such as the detection of a threatening species, or hostile weather phenomenon, or natural food source.
Plants also have mechanisms to detect injury in one part of the plant, and means by which to give and receive signals to targeted parts of its whole. I’m not sure there is evidence that plants scream per se, (there are no pain receptors in plants like humans have). There is evidence to suggest that trees communicate with each other in cooperative ways. Trees are linked to neighboring trees by an underground network of fungi that resembles the neural networks in the brain. What they discuss is however anyone’s guess!
In the same way that NASA saw fit to redefine long held definitions of what constitutes life – moving towards a general theory of living systems – so too might science in general move towards renewed understanding of consciousness. I guess the further away from Earth we probe, the greater the possibility of finding different life forms and hence the looser our earth-bound theories become on what constitutes life and how consciousness is defined.
DN
Wouldn’t it throw all our philosophical based morals into confusion if it was discovered that plants were sensitive, sentient life-forms? It would put salads in a completely different light.
No reason why they aren’t. Their biochemistry is 200 times more complex than ours. They are more highly evolved.
Opher – Would it throw all our philosophical based morals into confusion? Why would it…we’ve been eating sentient creatures for thousands of years. The growing demand for plant-based foods is not simply in response to animal rights protesters, but due to a combination of finite resources, impacting climate change, and exponentially growing world population etc.
Is a lettuce-leaf, detached from the main body of a living plant still alive at point of consumption? Whilst a tomato plucked from the vine retains its potential to seed life – to ensure a continuity of its species – is it in itself still alive, or has it ceased to be?
Will you be actively protesting for the rights of plants not to be eaten?
Some religions foreground the sanctity of all life – quite rightly it should be celebrated and revered – but not at the expense of human life. Buddhists for example find compromise, suggesting that one should eat to maintain life and nourish the body but not cling to the sensual pleasures of eating.
In much the same way as Nasa expands its consideration of what constitutes life, so too we should perhaps seek new understanding and revised definitions of sentience?
What replaces living matter as a food source? For example, would lab produced synthetic (chemical-based) food replicants be an option: perhaps a colourless, odorless, flavourless pill popped three times a day instead of prepared meals by which to provide our nutritional needs.
Have you tried any of the new plant-based foods (emerging) available in the market place such as no Chuna Tuna, or meatless porkpies and sausages. (Why don’t these replicated foods have different names to the original they replace. Why not invent new words?) I’m not keen myself. A family member is vegan – a choice decided upon as reaction to the suffering of livestock animals. The food served is wholesome yet not hearty, but to be honest, it is the presence of heavy marinades and flavoursome sauces that help the cardboard tofu go down!
DN
Yes, I know we are a cruel callous species and a number of us enjoy inflicting pain and death, but many people are sickened by cruelty. Some go so far as to not eat meat because of the suffering of animals and their horrid deaths (even though this has become more humane).
What if they discovered that the salad they were about to tuck into was actually screaming (silently) and vividly feeling the pain of every cut every bit as much as an animal?
Perhaps a leaf is still alive and conscious? Certainly leaves, like other parts of plants, can be planted to grow into new plants. They are alive.
Would it affect me? Maybe a little. I’d be more conscious of how I prepared and cooked plants. But, even though I love animals and hate pain and cruelty, I still eat meat. I just campaign for humane treatment.
Plants do make fruit that is intended to be eaten by animals. That probably wouldn’t have feelings.
There are many products being made from bacteria and fungi – mycoprotein, pruteen etc. We are nearing the point, with 3D copying where we can make food from chemicals. Maybe……..
We are constantly trying new vegetable-based products. Some are very good though they do not quite get to the flavorsome level of real meat!
I’m holding out for 3D steaks!!