assuming you could call phototropism "consciousness," that still requires a physical structure, not emanations from the ether

Guys...what about ghosts?

I'm pretty sure Rob is right. I have an 8 sided time-window key crystal that resonates with my root chakra. Surely, it posseses a certain level of consciousness that allows its healing properties to flow.

Hold my hand, and see...

"vodka lasgne [sic] and mushrooms"

for real though, plants exhibit awareness of their surroundings, which is a sign of consciousness. It may be that the deists and animists were right, that everything in the Universe has consciousness, because the Universe has consciousness.

Do you hear that, vegans? It's your salad, crying in pain.

wheat is murder.

what happened to the "all things science" thread

sorry but i gotta be a positivist on these matters-- not measurable or repeatable = philosophy perhaps, but definitely not science

they will eventually experiment on it and show it to be true.

Rob is totally high. He just gave credence to deists and animists....for the first time....ever.

Are you feverish, Rob? Have you been reading io9 for funsies again???

If you want to touch my crystals, Rob, I'll let you! :)

Just be sure and get me high too.

you just single-handedly killed the ghost of francis bacon

I still do not believe in soul, but more that consciousness is an inherent property of matter.

that's just belief though-- i don't even know what you mean by "soul".

as for testing-- we don't even have a way to detect "consciousness". all we have is the other side of the turing tests-- "we have it" and if the machine cannot be differentiated then it's "intelligent". but how do you define it? and worse, how do you measure it? magnetism? electricity? something else we don't even know about?

give cognitive neuroscience a couple of centuries and maybe we can start to investigate the "consciousness" of plants. meanwhile, it's just hocus pocus.

Sam Cooke had soul

What does THE WEED think about you smoking its sex-parts, Rob?

You should feel ashamed. THE WEED would never smoke yr sex-parts (although that might feel nice).

vegetarians don;t know that they are killing plants, living beings. Their morality is so stupid.

^^ that reminds me of randall the honey badger guy but about hydrogen

like he could have said "hydrogen isn't a fucking toy, stupid"

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/...ntcmp=obinsite

Scientists reach temperatures BELOW absolute zero.

I love the future. ti is gonna be AWESOME