Ep 13: Paco Calvo on Intelligent Plants in 'Planta Sapiens'

The Science in The Fiction

Following up on our discussion of intelligent plants with Sue Burke in our last episode, we have invited Paco Calvo, a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, who speaks to us about his book 'Planta Sapiens'. Paco is a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, who is known for his research in the field of plant cognition and intelligence. His interdisciplinary work combines insights from biology, philosophy, and cognitive science to explore the world of plant behavior, decision-making, and problem-solving. Paco's book outlines both the philosophical and scientific case for expanding our view of intelligent behaviour and consciousness to include plants. This has been an ongoing trajectory throughout the history of science, allowing more and more non-human elements into our recognition of sentience, intelligence and consciousness. Where once we had a completely anthropocentric view of consciousness – you were only allowed in the club if you had a neocortex like us - now our perception of other creatures' sentience has expanded to include other mammals, cephalopods like squid and octopi, parrots and corvids and maybe even goldfish! So continuing along this trend, it may be time to consider the possibility that plants have their own form of sentience. We discuss the necessity of philosophical training in order to conceive the kinds of questions one might ask to study plants in this regard, and ask: can plants learn? Do they exhibit intelligent behaviour? Can we develop generalized tests for consciousness, dropping our neo-cortical prejudices about the special state of human sentience in order to recognize cognition in an organism that is genuinely alien to us? Tune in and find out!

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