Ai vs AI: Question 18/81

Do plants have feelings?

Ai Weiwei: All life forms have feelings, I think.

ChatGPT (AI), January 2024: Plants do not have feelings in the same way animals or humans do. While they respond to stimuli, it is not indicative of emotions. The debate on plant sentience is ongoing in scientific and philosophical circles.

ChatGPT (AI), January 2025: Plants don’t have feelings in the same way animals or humans do, as they lack nervous systems and brains, which are necessary for experiencing emotions or conscious awareness. However, plants do have remarkable ways of responding to their environment, and some of these responses might seem like they’re connected to emotions.

How Plants Respond to Stimuli:
Touch and Movement
Thigmotropism: Plants can respond to touch or physical stimuli. For example, vine plants like morning glories or tendrils of a pea plant will curl around objects they come into contact with. This helps them grow towards support.
Mimosa pudica (the sensitive plant) folds its leaves when touched. While this may look like a reaction to discomfort, it’s believed to be a defense mechanism against herbivores or environmental factors, not an emotional response.
Light and Gravity

Phototropism: Plants grow toward light, as they “sense” the direction of light using special proteins called photoreceptors. This isn’t an emotional reaction but a biochemical process that maximizes their ability to photosynthesize.
Gravitropism: Plants also respond to gravity by growing roots downward and stems upward, a process vital for survival.
Chemical Signaling

Stress Responses: Plants release chemical signals in response to stress, such as when they are under attack by herbivores or facing drought. For example, some plants emit chemicals to attract predators of herbivores or release compounds like jasmonic acid to signal distress.
Root Signaling: Plants can communicate through their roots and share nutrients or warnings with neighboring plants.
Memory and Learning?

There is some evidence to suggest that plants can “remember” certain stimuli. For example, in an experiment with the plant Arabidopsis, scientists found that it could “learn” to respond less dramatically to repeated mechanical stress, suggesting a form of non-neuronal memory. However, this is not “memory” in the way animals experience it, as it’s more about adaptive responses to repeated events.
Are These Responses “Feelings”?
While these reactions are sophisticated and adaptive, they don’t constitute conscious feelings. Emotions as we understand them—like pain, joy, or fear—require neural circuits and a central nervous system, which plants do not possess. Plants respond to their environment to survive and thrive, not because they “feel” in the way animals do.

Conclusion
Plants are highly responsive organisms, but they don’t have emotions or feelings as animals do. Their behaviors are driven by biochemical processes designed to maximize their chances of survival, rather than conscious experiences of pleasure or pain. Still, it’s a fascinating reminder of how life can adapt and respond to the environment in ways that seem almost “aware,” even without a brain!

DeepSeek (AI), January 2025: Plants do not have feelings in the way humans or animals do because they lack a nervous system, brain, and the biological structures required for experiencing emotions or pain. However, plants are incredibly complex organisms that respond to their environment in sophisticated ways. Here’s a breakdown of how plants interact with their surroundings:

How Plants Respond to Stimuli:

1. Tropisms: Plants can grow toward or away from stimuli, such as light (phototropism), gravity (gravitropism), or touch (thigmotropism).
   
2. Chemical Signaling: Plants release chemicals to communicate with other plants or organisms. For example, they can emit volatile organic compounds to warn nearby plants of herbivore attacks.
   
3. Defense Mechanisms: When damaged, some plants produce toxins or compounds to deter predators or heal themselves.
4. Root Communication: Research has shown that plant roots can detect and respond to changes in soil conditions, such as nutrient availability or the presence of neighboring plants.
   

Do Plants Feel Pain?:

– Plants do not have nociceptors (pain receptors) or a nervous system, so they cannot “feel” pain in the way animals do.
– While they respond to damage or stress, these reactions are biochemical and mechanical, not emotional.

The Debate on Plant “Intelligence”:
Some scientists argue that plants exhibit a form of “intelligence” because they can adapt to their environment, solve problems (e.g., finding resources), and communicate with other organisms. However, this is not the same as consciousness or feelings.

Conclusion
Plants are remarkable organisms with sophisticated ways of interacting with their environment, but they do not have feelings, emotions, or consciousness. Their responses are purely biological and evolutionary, aimed at survival and reproduction. While it’s fascinating to study their behaviors, attributing human-like feelings to plants is not supported by scientific evidence.

Google Gemini (AI), June 2025: This is a fascinating and ongoing area of scientific inquiry! The short answer is: it’s highly unlikely plants have “feelings” in the same way humans or even animals with complex nervous systems do, but they are incredibly complex and responsive organisms.

Here’s a breakdown of what the science currently suggests:

What plants do have:

– Sophisticated Senses: Plants can sense a wide range of environmental cues, including light (different wavelengths and intensity), gravity, touch, temperature, water availability, and the presence of various chemicals in the soil and air.
– Complex Communication: They communicate extensively. This can be through:
– Chemical signals: Releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air to warn neighboring plants of danger (e.g., insect attacks) or attract beneficial insects.
– Electrical signals: They transmit electrical signals throughout their bodies, somewhat akin to animal nervous systems, though without neurons or a centralized brain. These signals can convey information about wounds or stress.
– Fungal networks: Many plants form symbiotic relationships with fungi in their roots, creating vast underground “wood wide web” networks that can transfer nutrients and send alarm signals between plants.
– Memory and Learning: Plants can “remember” past experiences and adjust their responses. For example, a sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) that folds its leaves when touched will eventually stop if the touch is repeated and harmless, indicating it has learned not to react. They also remember seasonal cues for growth and flowering.
– Adaptive Responses: Plants exhibit a wide array of adaptive behaviors to survive and thrive. They can grow towards light, re-route roots around obstacles, produce defensive chemicals, and even modify their growth patterns in response to wind or other physical stresses.

Why “feelings” as we know them are unlikely:

– No Central Nervous System/Brain: The key difference is the absence of a brain and a centralized nervous system (neurons, synapses) as found in animals. Our experience of pain and emotions is inextricably linked to these structures. Without them, it’s hard to imagine how plants could process sensations into subjective “feelings” like pain, fear, happiness, or sadness.
– Pain is a Defense Mechanism: In animals, pain is a crucial defense mechanism that alerts them to harm and prompts them to escape or avoid further injury. Plants are sessile (rooted in place) and don’t have the “fight or flight” response in the same way. Their responses to damage are more about chemical defense and growth regulation.
– “Stress” vs. “Pain”: When a plant is damaged (e.g., a leaf is cut), it certainly reacts. It releases chemicals, activates genes, and transmits signals. This is a stress response, vital for its survival. However, equating this biochemical and electrical activity to the conscious experience of “pain” is a significant leap and not supported by current scientific understanding.
– Time Scales: Plant processes often occur on much slower timescales than animal reactions, which can make it hard for us to intuitively grasp their “perception.”

The ongoing debate and ethical considerations:

Some researchers in the field of “plant neurobiology” (a somewhat controversial term as it implies neurons) argue that plants exhibit forms of “intelligence” or “cognition.” While they might not use the term “feelings,” they emphasize the complex information processing and adaptive behaviors.

The idea that plants might feel has also sparked ethical discussions, particularly regarding vegetarianism and veganism. However, based on the current scientific consensus, the vast majority of plant scientists do not believe plants experience subjective pain or emotions in a conscious way.

In summary: Plants are remarkably intricate and dynamic organisms with incredible abilities to sense, communicate, and respond to their environment. They have sophisticated defense mechanisms and adaptive strategies. However, the scientific evidence does not support the idea that they possess consciousness or experience “feelings” like pain or emotions in the way animals do. Their “responses” to stimuli are more akin to complex biological reactions and signaling rather than subjective experiences.

To coincide with the exhibition, 81 Questions – a series of 81 hand-signed and embossed screen prints featuring the 81 questions posed by Ai Weiwei – are available exclusively on CIRCA.ART for £500+VAT.

“Each Lego brick pixel represents a person”, says Ai Weiwei, who incorporates the plastic construction toy – a readymade material incorporated into many of his most recent works – into his print design for the first time. The black egalitarian pixel font and embossed baseplate combine technology with artisanal craft to create this thought-provoking and playful reflection on today’s world. Each print in the series of 81 Questions is hand-signed and numbered by the artist in editions of 81.