You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
As a plant scientist myself, I was super excited to start this book. I've long been intrigued by cognition in other species and Planta Sapiens seemed to offer insights into one of my favorite branches of the tree of life! So I got this at the end of last year and was very excited about it.
And its been a weird feeling, but the ups and downs of this book kinda cancel out. The author presents some really interesting ideas about plant cognition, the philosophy behind it, and the implications it has for technology and society. He attempts to break free from traditional views of science and also points out several developments in the scientific world that frankly go deeper than just plant sciences.
However, the lows were very low. Connecting only loosely connected ideas from animal cognition and AI to plant sciences seems to be some of the strongest arguments the author musters for the cause of the subjective experience for plants. He focuses on the outward projection of plants and their macro behaviour, without so much considering the minute changes in growth and development in plants. He tends towards leaning on only the movement of vines, rather than the roots which he himself has indicated to be the more intelligent part of the plant.
This also bridges nicely in what others have said too, where the book seems to jump from topic to topic, without regard for what has been said in the previous chapters, or little where it is present. Some ideas are mentioned and never really explored, others are posited without much explanation or evidence. Some chapters seem wholly out of place, disrupting the narrative in strange ways. And lastly, my greatest gripe with the book: the author warns against anthrophomorphizing plants. How projecting human values may lead to wrongful conclusions in science. But subsequently, he ignores every bit of plant science that has been done on the molecular mechanisms of plant life. Instead of harnessing the wealth of information that is known about plants (plants can discern up from down, detect each other, tell infection from beneficial microbe) and discards it wholly! He even goes so far as to ascribe a new function to known phytohormones, with no evidence whatsoever.
So what I hoped to be a beautiful integrative piece of literature about the marvelous systems that plants have evolved and how those align to form cognition, essentially was a philosophy book with some interesting ideas. Therefore, 2.5 stars
And its been a weird feeling, but the ups and downs of this book kinda cancel out. The author presents some really interesting ideas about plant cognition, the philosophy behind it, and the implications it has for technology and society. He attempts to break free from traditional views of science and also points out several developments in the scientific world that frankly go deeper than just plant sciences.
However, the lows were very low. Connecting only loosely connected ideas from animal cognition and AI to plant sciences seems to be some of the strongest arguments the author musters for the cause of the subjective experience for plants. He focuses on the outward projection of plants and their macro behaviour, without so much considering the minute changes in growth and development in plants. He tends towards leaning on only the movement of vines, rather than the roots which he himself has indicated to be the more intelligent part of the plant.
This also bridges nicely in what others have said too, where the book seems to jump from topic to topic, without regard for what has been said in the previous chapters, or little where it is present. Some ideas are mentioned and never really explored, others are posited without much explanation or evidence. Some chapters seem wholly out of place, disrupting the narrative in strange ways. And lastly, my greatest gripe with the book: the author warns against anthrophomorphizing plants. How projecting human values may lead to wrongful conclusions in science. But subsequently, he ignores every bit of plant science that has been done on the molecular mechanisms of plant life. Instead of harnessing the wealth of information that is known about plants (plants can discern up from down, detect each other, tell infection from beneficial microbe) and discards it wholly! He even goes so far as to ascribe a new function to known phytohormones, with no evidence whatsoever.
So what I hoped to be a beautiful integrative piece of literature about the marvelous systems that plants have evolved and how those align to form cognition, essentially was a philosophy book with some interesting ideas. Therefore, 2.5 stars
I wanted to like this book, or at least find it interesting. It turned out to be so awful that I was mostly hate-reading it by the end.
The author continually projected findings from people or animals onto plants with no justification at all. They regularly described an experiment in people or animals, hypothesized how one might do a similar experiment in plants, assumed a certain outcome for such an experiment, and then later used that outcome as a basis for an argument. The whole book was filled with so many missing experiments and leaps of logic, I am amazed it was published. Truly dreadful.
The author continually projected findings from people or animals onto plants with no justification at all. They regularly described an experiment in people or animals, hypothesized how one might do a similar experiment in plants, assumed a certain outcome for such an experiment, and then later used that outcome as a basis for an argument. The whole book was filled with so many missing experiments and leaps of logic, I am amazed it was published. Truly dreadful.
informative
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
As someone who has been fussing over a small hoard of plants I have long intuited that plants do more than just react to their environment that there is more to them than meet the eye so it was really interesting to read Calvo's arguments for plants having a form of sentience. It was also a very charming and engaging read, Calvo is really passionate about his topic and it shows in the best possible way. If you're looking for an easy nonfiction read that won't drown you in jargon Planta Sapiens would be a good pick.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
informative