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Full Idea
Might plants just be 'very slow animals', enjoying sentience that has been overlooked by us because of our human timescale chauvinism?
Gist of Idea
Maybe plants are very slow (and sentient) animals, overlooked because we are faster?
Source
Daniel C. Dennett (Kinds of Minds [1996], Ch.3)
Book Ref
Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Kinds of Minds' [Phoenix 1997], p.87
A Reaction
Delightful thought, arising from pondering the significance of the speed of operation of the brain. I think it is false, because I think high speed is essential to mind, and Dennett seems not to.
| 4608 | Minds are hard-wired, or trial-and-error, or experimental, or full self-aware [Dennett, by Heil] |
| 4873 | What is it like to notice an uncomfortable position when you are asleep? [Dennett] |
| 4872 | Most people see an abortion differently if the foetus lacks a brain [Dennett] |
| 4875 | We descend from robots, and our intentionality is composed of billions of crude intentional systems [Dennett] |
| 4874 | The predecessor and rival of the language of thought hypothesis is the picture theory of ideas [Dennett] |
| 4877 | Maybe plants are very slow (and sentient) animals, overlooked because we are faster? [Dennett] |
| 4878 | The materials for a mind only matter because of speed, and a need for transducers and effectors [Dennett] |
| 4879 | There is no more anger in adrenaline than silliness in a bottle of whiskey [Dennett] |
| 4876 | Maybe there is a minimum brain speed for supporting a mind [Dennett] |
| 4880 | Sentience comes in grades from robotic to super-human; we only draw a line for moral reasons [Dennett] |
| 4881 | Being a person must involve having second-order beliefs and desires (about beliefs and desires) [Dennett] |
| 4882 | Concepts are things we (unlike dogs) can think about, because we have language [Dennett] |