Stefano Mancuso

Thanks to Netgalley!

The book asks us, sometimes repeatedly, to step outside of our preconceived notions. Fair enough. I'm not a member of an old-boy scientific network, so I have no vested interests besides learning for learning's sake. So what does Mr. Mancuso ask us to swallow?

Easily enough, it's just the idea that plants are intelligent.

No biggie, actually. I was convinced pretty early in the book, especially when we throw out prejudices such as the need for a "brain" or "eyes" or any of show more the traditional "sense organs" we animals possess.

Think about it. Plants make decisions all the time, not just in hunting for water, discovering new pockets of phosphorous or other trace elements, competing with other plants, defending against and entering into agreements with bacteria, insects, and animals. Even the way they decide to propagate themselves show a remarkably diverse toolset, from communicating by delicious ripe fruit, chemically unique and heavily directed pheromones that entice very specific animals and insects, and mimicry. And when they choose to do any of it is based on a very complex decision plot.

But they're plants, you say. Just dumb plants. (I'm paraphrasing the the author's imagined critique crowd.) I mow the lawn. It doesn't seem to complain. How smart can it be?

Actually, pretty damn smart. The tips of even a small plant's roots can number 15 million discrete sensory apparatus, and larger plants, like corn, can have upwards of a hundred million. Think of the tips of the roots as the neurons. They make all the decisions. This is real. And real communication takes place across same species of plants over great distances just as real communication is possible and even likely across species.

True non-human, non-animal intelligence right here on Earth? Sure. I'm sold. Look at how plants have learned to communicate with us. If we're so damn smart, then why have plants started preening themselves like courtly lovers trying to land a hot mate with humanity? Hell, they still think that ants are pretty hot shit. Whole colonies will violently defend trees. We are cultivating orchards, food crops, medicinal plants by the hundreds of scores, and in return, these plants THRIVE.

They're alive. They think. If they give us more pretties, we take very good care of them. I would not be surprised if in the next 100 years, assuming we haven't killed off all the rest of the intelligent life on the planet, most of the plant life turns into one gigantic catering service to humanity. After all, as long as their root systems survive and they're given comfy environments, they're just fine with being eaten. They're not reliant on us, but they sure as hell know how to exploit us. :)

Believe it or not, all of this is proven science. Just because some of us don't believe what is obvious, such as the fact that more than 95% of the world's biomass is plant matter and it'll go on being the dominant life form even if all the animals including us die, doesn't mean it isn't true.

There's an interesting anecdote that paraphrases that we nonchalantly ignore the importance and intelligence and motive and sensory capabilities of plants JUST because they're slower than we can readily perceive. They're not less complex. In fact, they have all of our senses, plus a much wider capacity to sense. Theories have most plants linked up to at least 20 full-blown senses. Not just our five. Hell, I'd LOVE to be able to sense gravity. Oh, wait. I do: It's that way.

Okay, so perhaps his definition of senses needs a bit more fleshing, whether its animal or plant flesh, but I am convinced on the intelligence. :)

An interesting unproven hypothesis speculate that they work together as emergent properties rather more complicated than simply transmitting through the roots, either chemically, spatially, or even through the tiny clicking sounds that all roots make, whether or not it's the cracking of the cellular wall or it's a method of communication.

Swarming intelligent emergence within a root system. That's so totally awesome. Discussions of AIs and Other Computing Models are also touched in this book.

The only reason I knocked a star was in the total page-time spent exhorting us to just quit it with our animal prejudices, looking for intelligence that's just like us instead of what is apparent all around us. Systems Theory should have put a nail in that coffin of thought, but alas, the opposite is apparently still going strong. I wanted even more facts and even more wild theories, not more persuasive arguments. :)

Stop sitting around like a vegetable, people! show less

Forse non il miglior testo in assoluto di Mancuso, ma senza dubbio un manifesto biologico ed etico di notevole spessore.
Lo scienziato prende spunto dalle conoscenze sempre più approfondite del mondo vegetale per buttar giù una specie di costituzione della nazione delle piante, a cui anche noi ci dovremmo ispirare. In sintesi sono otto i punti chiave:
1. L'uomo non è il centro del mondo perché per vivere ha bisogno delle piante che facciano da tramite con il sole.
2. Nel mondo esistono show more relazioni visibili e invisibili tra gli esseri viventi che se non rispettate possono far grande danno, quindi ogni essere vivente ha il suo ruolo.
3. La gerarchia animale basata sul sistema centralista e piramidale della competizione è inefficace mentre quella vegetale decentrata e diffusa è un modello biologicamente ed eticamente vincente.
4. Le piante non vivono sfruttando le risorse delle generazioni future ma consumano solo ciò che trovano disponibile oppure riducono i consumi.
5. Le piante sono l'unica soluzione a inquinamento e riscaldamento globale: è più facile piantare ovunque specie vegetali che ridurre le emissioni, la deforestazione è un crimine contro l'umanità.
6. Non esiste crescita infinita.
7. Il mondo non ha confini e la migrazione di animali e piante non si può impedire.
8. Le piante progrediscono più per cooperazione e simbiosi che per competizione.
In ogni punto ci sono spiegazioni ed esempi dal mondo vegetale e da quello scientifico a sostegno delle tesi elencate.
Il libro è breve, 144 pagine, poco più di due ore se lo ascoltate in audiolibro.
Ma vale la pena.
Anzi, secondo me può essere una buonissima introduzione ad altri tipi di libri di questo autore che personalmente apprezzo molto come scienzato (è neurobiologo) e come divulgatore. show less

Plants are far more advanced than we give them credit for. Mancuso and Viola are out to set the record straight, and they do it in an easy to read primer on the structure of plants. This is a fast read and a short book, covering a lot of ground far less verbosely than Darwin, where pretty much all of the observations originated.

The most important revelation in Brilliant Green is that plants are in effect colonies, like ants or bees. There are no essential organs that can fatally fail, and show more damage can be overcome by the network structure, much like the internet. Plants have numerous internal networks and systems. There is constant, active internal communication, and they take a very active role in their wellbeing and their environs. They can sense and favor their own offspring, seek out nutrients and avoid poisons, and instruct leaves to be more conservationist when moisture levels underground are low. They have not only all five of our senses, but 15 more, like detecting gravity, levels of sunlight, time of year and the presence of others.

If plants are wiped out, we would not survive more than a few weeks. If we were wiped out, plants would take over everything we had built in a few years. A lot more respect is due.

David Wineberg show less

This book is a translation from the original Italian publisher, so let's begin with the title. Mancuso's book appeared in Italy as "PLANT REVOLUTION : Le piante hanno già inventato il nostro futuro", or something like "Plant revolution : plants have already invented our future". The English title misrepresents the contents and purpose of the book.

Mancuso has an impressive international stature as a plant neurobiologist and has written a chatty, accessible discussion of how plants have the show more potential to provide technological solutions to some of the major challenges that face humanity. His approach is not tightly focused. Thus he uses the first few chapters to show his non-specialist audience how much more sophisticated plants are in their functioning than most people realize and how we would be wise to pay them much more and much different attention than we usually do.

The chapters do not link obviously to one another, making the point of the book unclear until close to the end. The final chapters, though, do make it clear that we have used plants' technology in the past (the structure of The Crystal Palace, for example), and we need to do that again.

There are a generous number of illustrations, beautifully presented. The book is a quick read and worth the time, but don't expect to understand much about plant intelligence when you finish it. show less