10/24/2005: Dog becomes shark bait

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

If you are asking if I believe plants have a nervous system similar to mammals, then no; I didn't miss that much of biology class.

No, I am asking whether you think plants can feel pain. I'm just curious; I do know people who think that plants have some sort of consciousness.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

No, I am asking whether you think plants can feel pain. I'm just curious; I do know people who think that plants have some sort of consciousness.

I read "The secret life of plants" back in the 70's. A lot of experiments were done with plants being hooked up to polygraph machines as I recall. There was one that stands out in my memory:
Several plants were set up in a room and a series of people walked through the room, one at a time, past the plants. One of the people was instructed to pick a plant at random and tear it out of its pot and rip it to pieces.

Later the people again filed past the plants and when the plant killer came into the room the machines went berserk.

I would like to see that experiment reproduced on NOVA.

I'm not sure what I believe, today when I went out onto my lawn and saw that one of my filthy neighbors let his dog shit on my lawn, you know I was thinking about using him as shark bait, to hell with his dog.

But that's just me being a backsliding buddhist.