• nifty@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    We don’t know how consciousness works enough to say they don’t. Having a brain and/or nervous system might not be necessary.

    Hmm sorry but no, there are traits exhibited by conscious entities which we don’t observe in those which lack consciousness. This is a nice explainer on consciousness, note that it’s not saying anything about needing a brain to exhibit those traits

    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/#DesQueWhaFeaCon

    correct me if I am misremembering sth

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      there are traits exhibited by conscious entities which we don’t observe in those which lack consciousness.

      Implying we have a way of determining whether an entity is conscious or not. That’s the entire point of contention here.

    • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      How will we ever know for sure if plants have their own form of consciousness that doesn’t follow a list of requirements that’s based on animals, or can feel pain.

      • nifty@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        But why do you think plants should have some own form of consciousness? All organism which have circulatory systems have generally similarly behaving circulatory systems. So why should consciousness be different?

        No, if an organism does not exhibit all properties of consciousness that we see in all other organisms, then it’s not conscious

        • strawberrysocial@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I see what you are saying, but maybe you’re looking at it from an animal perspective instead of a plant one. They could have consciousness in their own way that’s not similar to ours, so we think they are “brainless” or not aware of what’s going on. I’m not a scientist but I do wonder about plants. They are living creatures.