this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
779 points (98.9% liked)
Science Memes
17164 readers
3007 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
That top sentence has a bunch of flavor text. Livestock implies they're intentionally being kept as livestock. Plants aren't sentient. That's like saying evolution is intentional.
Keep in mind that "Welcome to Nightvale" is a Lovecraftian comedy podcast set in the fictional town of Nightvale
I mean it's true... but there's a pretty reasonable case that humans aren't sentient. We think we're doing shit for a good reason but at the end of the day on a large scale we're just going through the motions of what our environment leads us to do.
This is why I don't like determining an organism's value based on how "sentient" it is. I prefer to admit that I treat dogs and pigs better than carrots and fish because I empathize with them more, entirely of my own bias. I don't think I have any more or less value than a blade of grass; we're both products of happenstance just running our programming, and we won't be around long.
That's what Big Vegan wants you to think!
Plants aren’t sentient by our understanding of sentience there’s evidence that they communicate via the mycelium network and give their own offspring more nutrients than others. That‘s the two I can think of without googling
What other understanding of sentience would we fucking use?!
The mycelium network thing is way overblown - it allows some crude, ~~undetected~~undirected signals to pass.
I see it as a problem to solve - we know that signals pass because of the results, but we have yet to detect them
I typo'd "undirected" if that affects anything.
My point is, people talk about this as if it's the plants having a nice chat and a cup of tea and talking about politics. It isn't - it's more like a dog being able to smell some dog piss and understand something about the dog that pissed there.
They also nurse their sick and keep stumps from dying - from The Secret Life of Trees, which also supports your comments