2019-07-03, 11:01 PM
Group of biologists tries to bury the idea that plants are conscious
Quote:Taiz believes the rise of plant neurobiology is driven by the environmental crisis that poses an ever-increasing threat to life on Earth.
“They want to raise people’s consciousness about plants as living organisms and reach them on an emotional level. I’m very sympathetic to the motivations, but it is clouding their objectivity. They have to be prepared for the fact that plants may not have consciousness,” he said. “It’s bad science. It takes the whole scientific enterprise and reduces its credibility.”
But Gagliano is having none of it. “If we think we already know how things are and fail to continuously question our own assumptions, but construct our claims on a system of beliefs we are dearly attached to, then we are in deep trouble and miss the opportunity for true scientific discovery to occur.
“Miserably, this opinion piece seems yet another missed opportunity, one that makes strikingly no headway towards a better scientific understanding of what consciousness is.”