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6 hours ago, teonzo said:

 

This view is a bit simplistic. It assumes that the only things capable of thinking and feeling are what are called "brains". Are you so sure it's impossible that plants could use other ways to have thoughts and feelings? For the little we know, we can expect that in the future it will be possible to face artificial intelligence, which will be based on something completely different from what we call brain. I underscore "we can expect", meaning it seems the most probable scenario, but we can't be sure on either side. Same way, how can we be totally sure that plants don't have a system they use to think and feel, but is completely different from animal brains? We don't even know how our own human nervous systems work, see al the new studies on the enteric nervous system and our istinctive logic (called "gut feelings" and so on). We know so little about our own brain that supposing other living beings are incapable of thinking is pure arrogance. How can we be so SURE another living being is not capable of thinking? Just think about the opposite: what would happen if we would be able to transfer a human brain in another living being? Would we be able to notice that there is "human intelligence" in that living being? We can detect intelligence mainly through 2 things: language and artifacts. To be able to claim that a language is an output of poor intelligence we need to understand that language first. To be able to make artifacts you need a body that is able to create artifacts. We know dolphins are intelligent, but how much? We can't say anything about their language, we know they have a structured language they use to communicate, but we still haven't found a way to decipher it (if we were so much superior then it would be pretty simple for us to decipher such a simple language, or not?). We can't judge from their artifacts because, well, try imagining what artifacts you could make with the body of a dolphin. For plants it's the same: recent studies (last 5 years, there's an equipe in Florence at the forefront of this) point out that plants are capable of complex communications. We just are not able to decipher that language (yet). Does this mean that plants are not capable of thinking? No. Does this mean that plants are capable of thinking? Neither. We are still just too ignorant to claim something on either side. We are only arrogant because we are lucky to have hands, thanks to them we are able to kill all other living beings with ease. This makes us feel "superior". This does not make us more intelligent, especially considering all the killings between our own species.

 

 

 

Teo

 

So we know nothing at all, then.

You talk about science as a philosopher would.  This is not a compliment.