Yes, I agree - it's the role of energy.
In 1997, I set up an international conference titled SEE:
Semiosis/Evolution/Energy. This was specifically devoted to the
concept that semiosis deals with the 'rational' transformation of
energy from one morphology into another. We had speakers from
physics, biology, AI, etc. The idea is that ALL matter is a semiosic
formation of energy and the function of this semiosis is to enable
functional adaptations, to enable networking....all to prevent the
ultimate dissipations of energy. The world is viewed as a CAS, a
complex adaptive system. We continued this focus in journal articles
etc..and another conference a few years later.
Edwina
On Sat 25/11/17 8:21 AM , "Stephen Jarosek" sjaro...@iinet.net.au
sent:
EDWINA: “And it IS an aspect of 'Mind'. As Peirce said - "Thought
is not necessarily connected with a brain.”
Ultimately, the question of what role a brain plays relates to
thermodynamics. Plants don’t have brains because the choices that
they make from their Umwelts are simple, and in “slow motion”.
They receive a distributed, limited form of energy from the sun and
nutrients from the soil, and so they cannot afford to squander their
energy in the same way that brained organisms can… it’s why
plants don’t have legs, why they don’t get up and move around.
The “brain” of the plant is therefore distributed throughout its
body, in its leaves, branches, roots and stem… that’s how I would
interpret it.
Carnivorous plants, however, such as the Venus flytrap, receive
excess energy & nutrients from the insects that they digest, and
therefore are able to divert that energy to “hunting” for
supplementary food sources. And by the time that some hypothetical
plant might develop sufficiently to get up and move around, it would
cross an energy-access threshold whereby it would no longer need its
leaves… it then becomes an animal and, by necessity, one that
requires a brain. Brains are required for more complex
conceptualizations, in order to accommodate energy-intensive
choice-making from complex environments.
From: Edwina Taborsky [mailto:tabor...@primus.ca [1]]
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2017 12:42 AM
To: peirce-l@list.iupui.edu [2]; Charles Pyle
Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] The Secret Language of Plants
Thanks for the article. Biosemiotics is very involved with this
reality - of plant communication.
And it IS an aspect of 'Mind'. As Peirce said - "Thought is not
necessarily connected with a brain. It appears in the work of bees,
of crystals and
throughout the purely physical world'. 4.551.
And 'Mind' is most certainly operative in the biological realm.
Edwina Taborsky
On Fri 24/11/17 5:08 PM , Charles Pyle charlesp...@comcast.net [3]
sent:
Striking evidence that plants warn each other of environmental
dangers is reviving a once ridiculed field.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-secret-language-of-plants-20131216/
[4]
Links:
------
[1]
http://webmail.primus.ca/javascript:top.opencompose(\'tabor...@primus.ca\',\'\',\'\',\'\')
[2]
http://webmail.primus.ca/javascript:top.opencompose(\'peirce-l@list.iupui.edu\',\'\',\'\',\'\')
[3]
http://webmail.primus.ca/javascript:top.opencompose(\'charlesp...@comcast.net\',\'\',\'\',\'\')
[4]
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-secret-language-of-plants-20131216/
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