introduction
Introduction: Sleeping Plants, Awakening Insights

Part 1: Rethinking Plants from the Perspective of Intelligence
Chapter 1 Plant Blindness
Chapter 2: Following the Plant's Perspective
Chapter 3: Intelligent Behavior in Plants

Part 2: Plant Intelligence Through Science
Chapter 4: The Plant Nervous System
Chapter 5: Do Plants Think?
Chapter 6 Ecological Cognition

Part 3: The Future Unfolds with Plant Intelligence
Chapter 7: On Becoming a Plant
Chapter 8: Plant Liberation
Chapter 9: Green Robot

Going Out: Human Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, and Plant Intelligence
Acknowledgements
Americas
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★★★Praise for this book

“A meditation book that opens the mind to the inner world of plants.
“It changes and enriches our perspective on the green life around us.”
― Anil Seth (neuroscientist, author of Becoming Me)

“We should be glad that the author has sown a seed of hope in scientific curiosity.”
―Diana Beresford-Kroger, botanist and author of Forests of the World

“A call to think beyond our prejudices and human-centered indoctrination.”
—Jackie Higgins, Director of Oxford Scientific Film

“Compelling evidence for plant intelligence.”
― Kirkus Reviews


1.
Calling out plants in an age of technology and speed
Paco Calvo, a pioneer in the field of 'plant intelligence' that has drawn attention from TED and the BBC.
─ Plant intelligence that thinks more sophisticatedly because it doesn't move

Paco Calvo, the author of this book, is a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology. He teaches philosophy of science at the University of Murcia in Spain and is researching plant intelligence at the forefront of interdisciplinary research.
This book is Paco Calvo's first to be introduced in Korea, and it provides a detailed and popular explanation of the latest research findings on plant intelligence.
The story begins with a chemical lullaby sung to the green life.
The mimosa experiment, in which animals are 'put to sleep' by the action of exactly the same substance that anesthetizes them, invites us to reflect on how biochemically similar living things have become over the course of a long evolutionary process.
The author hints at the emergence of 'phytoethology' by saying that "all organisms have their own intelligence," as humanity began to ponder the consciousness of non-human life forms with the advent of animal ethology in the 20th century.
The author's research serves as a new alarm for humanity, which regards plants as nothing more than a "green background," to the point that there is an academic term, "plant blindness," which refers to the phenomenon of living surrounded by all kinds of plants but not recognizing them.
Compared to highly mobile animals, plants rooted in the ground must bear the full consequences of their choices.
Yet, plants have adapted to the Earth's environment and survived on less energy for much longer than we have.
If the decisions plants make were simple, would such a rich diversity of species have been created in the complex Earth's ecosystem?
The book's idea of ​​"uniquely growing" plant intelligence goes beyond simple biology and provides us with sustainable survival strategies and models of thinking.
This is why, in this age of science and technology, where artificial intelligence that mimics the human brain has emerged and humanity is advancing into space in search of a new home, we are once again calling out to plants on this earth.

“To temporarily put mammals to sleep, synthetic anesthetics must be administered.
However, plants make their own various types of anesthetics.
When we are stressed, we secrete these substances. For example, when we are injured, our tissues release anesthetic chemicals like ethylene into the air.
Additionally, if the roots are not properly supplied with water, they produce ethanol, ethylene, and divinyl ether.
It is not yet clear exactly why this happens.
Although some substances may help activate defense mechanisms, the efficacy of many others is unclear.
Maybe it's just a way to unwind, like when we reach for a beer at the end of a busy day.
Some of these substances are released in quantities large enough to affect the Earth's atmosphere.
We must seriously consider the implications of the fact that stressed plants and birds emit greenhouse gases.” ― From the introduction, “Sleeping Plants, Awakening Insights”

“Most changes that plants make are much slower than the lightning-fast reactions of animals (though, as we saw with the Venus flytrap, plants can pick up the pace when necessary).
If these plants did not have the intelligence to decide how to move and grow on their own, they would not be able to respond in a timely manner to whatever was happening around them.
“If you fall behind in the fierce competition of the wild plant world, you will be attacked by competitors and become prey to predators.” ― Chapter 1, “Plant Blindness,” from “Movement and Intelligence”

2.
Plants think with their whole body
─ The vascular system of plants, the green wires that transmit electrical signals
A third cognitive model that transcends the human-machine dichotomy

Plants collect information from their environment throughout their bodies, from roots to leaf tips.
They make the best choices for survival among numerous variables, including the five spectral regions of light, as well as day length and seasonal changes, temperature and humidity, vibration and salinity, changes in nutrients over time, microorganisms in the soil, and competition from neighbors.
Plants do not have a brain, but instead have a vascular system that transmits electrical signals.
This structure exchanges information by moving water, sugars, and signaling substances, much like an animal's nervous system.
Substances found in plants, such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and glutamate, are identical to human neurotransmitters.
The process of electrical signals starting from the injured area and spreading throughout the plant to activate defense mechanisms is similar to the behavior of animals feeling and coping with pain.
In plants, which do not have a specific organ called a brain and nerve cells, thinking occurs 'distributed' throughout the body.
Every part of the plant, from the roots to the leaves, senses and judges information, and responds accordingly.
This is similar to the multi-consciousness system of the octopus, where more than half of cognition occurs in the legs.
If the human-centered model of consciousness is a centrally controlled system, plants demonstrate a network-based, distributed thinking system. Nature has long been embodying the potential for new intelligence, a concept highlighted by AI and cognitive science.
There is a clear distinction between right and wrong in decisions made with survival as the goal.
When we make a wrong judgment and find ourselves in an unwanted situation, we become confused and surprised.
This is also true for plants. AI computes quickly, but its ability to respond appropriately to "unexpected surprises" is still limited.
This book provides clues to understanding true cognition and consciousness by examining how plants, with their distributed thinking systems, navigate and modify their environments when their predictions are contradicted.
Plants lack sensory organs, but they gather information through movement in a given environment, adjust themselves to changing situations, and make optimal decisions for survival.
This biological way of thinking cannot be reduced to simple computational ability.
The author interprets plant behavior from various perspectives, including integrated information theory, biosemiotics, and ecological psychology, and proposes plant intelligence as a “third cognitive model” that transcends the dichotomy between humans and machines.

“Researchers have engineered Arabidopsis thaliana to emit light when calcium levels within the cell increase.
And when he cut the aster with a knife, the calcium spread from the wound to the rest of the plant, creating waves of light.
Gilroy's team discovered that glutamate triggers waves of calcium-based electrical activity that signal cells to prepare for defense.
Just as glutamate, a mammalian neurotransmitter, rapidly transmits pain signals in plants, the way neurotransmitters work in plants appears to be no different from the way they work in animals.” ― Chapter 4, “Plant Nervous System,” from “Green Neurochemicals”

“High salinity in the soil causes severe stress on the roots, interfering with protein synthesis and other important processes.
Therefore, plants must do whatever it takes to avoid salt damage.
Most people avoid salt damage by seeking out soils that match their internal models of where they feel comfortable.
In this way, plants try to match predictions.” ― Chapter 5, “Do Plants Think?”, from “Coping with Surprises”

3.
Opening a radical, ecological future with plant intelligence.
─ Plants as subjects, not decorations or crops, and the ethics of companionship and coexistence
─ Soft Robots: Imagination for Rooted and Growing Cognitive Beings

Cognition is not simply an 'ability' that occurs independently within an organism, but a 'process' that occurs through continuous interaction between the organism and the environment.
To truly understand cognition, we must examine not what happens within an organism, but how that organism connects with the outside world.
That is, cognition is not something that 'is' inside, but something that 'happens' in relationships.
Let's take a moment to reflect on how plants are discussed today in the face of climate change, which poses an existential threat to human existence.
Still, humanity is stuck in the problem of making a living and is only focused on ways to increase crop growth rates.
Even in the face of the Earth's biosphere collapsing in real time, plants are still considered "a passive resource to be manipulated, cultivated, and even transported into space for the benefit of humanity."
We are now at a point where we must fundamentally shift this perspective.
If we view plants not merely as resources but as "cognitive beings" that perceive and adapt to their environment and survive, the relationship between plants and humans can advance to a completely different scientific and ethical horizon.
This shift in perception has also influenced technology, leading to the emergence of biomimetic robots called 'Growbots' that grow flexibly to adapt to their environment, like plants.
This technology, which mimics the distributed intelligence and structural flexibility of plants, shows the potential for new machine intelligence that connects with the world in a way similar to living organisms.
A way of being that is slow and careful like a plant, yet deeply rooted and in harmony with the environment—that is perhaps the most radical and ecological imagination we must learn now, both in technology and in life.

“If we focus on the natural environment in which actions unfold, we can see that cognition is not something that can be possessed not only by plants but also by animals.
Cognition is more like something that arises from the interaction between an organism and its surrounding environment.
“The reason we should think not about what happens inside an organism, but about how the organism connects with its surroundings is because experiences arise from interactions with the surrounding environment.” ― Chapter 7, “On Becoming a Plant,” from “Making Meaning”

“Developed by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, the ‘Growbot’ grows forward by continuously turning the inner center of a plastic pneumatic tube outward, much like the tip of a leaf continuously grows by creating new cells.
It can move forward by turning its body inside out even on rough ground, uneven surfaces, and in narrow spaces.
Growbot can use static electricity on its surface to pass between two sheets of sticky material and even move inside a bathtub filled with grass.
Growbot, which can squeeze through small gaps using only the power of air pressure, can widen or narrow its body width as needed.
“It can maintain air pressure even when pricked by a sharp object.” - Chapter 9, “Green Robot,” from “Growbot”


"It's amazingly original.
"With a growing body of literature on how plants experience the world, this impressive book will change the way readers see the plants around them."
― Publisher's Weekly

"Are plants sentient? Calvo devotes equal space to the debate between philosophers and fellow scientists on the meaning of intelligence, along with fascinating examples.
Readers will find it difficult to resist his argument that plants adapt their form and experience to their environment in ways that animals cannot.
“Compelling evidence for plant intelligence.”
― Kirkus Reviews