smascrns
09-18-2007, 01:10 PM
Excellent column, filled with interesting ideas.
Anyway, the way I see it intelligence and intentional behavior in plants becomes more interesting (and better to explain) if we look at the forest instead of the tree. What I mean is that, as you say, it's hard to design a plant with advanced behavior but it becomes a lot easier to do it if the behavior is sustained by a set of plants of the same or different species. In this case the entity is not the plant but a grove or a forest, etc. In this type of case each particular species may specialise in a particular function: Some communicate, others attack, etc. Of course, in this case the plants don't move, unless in the sense that as the whole grows the ability to reach other places also grows. Furthermore, this may combine plants and animals into an even more powerful whole.
Of course, this scenario becomes actually very similar to a scenario of industrial robots (instead of 'individual' robots) or an internet matrix.
Anyway, the way I see it intelligence and intentional behavior in plants becomes more interesting (and better to explain) if we look at the forest instead of the tree. What I mean is that, as you say, it's hard to design a plant with advanced behavior but it becomes a lot easier to do it if the behavior is sustained by a set of plants of the same or different species. In this case the entity is not the plant but a grove or a forest, etc. In this type of case each particular species may specialise in a particular function: Some communicate, others attack, etc. Of course, in this case the plants don't move, unless in the sense that as the whole grows the ability to reach other places also grows. Furthermore, this may combine plants and animals into an even more powerful whole.
Of course, this scenario becomes actually very similar to a scenario of industrial robots (instead of 'individual' robots) or an internet matrix.