Stefano Mancuso: The roots of plant intelligence

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.พ. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 191

  • @smellofsuccess7467
    @smellofsuccess7467 5 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Ultimate ... There were no snails harmed to make this representation... Brilliantly superb. The animated video is not a creation, it's our behavior we need to improve and evolve for our society . Hats off to you TED .

  • @oktaypocan
    @oktaypocan 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    One of the best TEDTalk I've listened recently... It was a true "consciousness riser". Thank you, Professor Mancuso!

  • @aaroncbailey
    @aaroncbailey 14 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This guy has the perfect accent! I love how i can understand him and i can laugh at his accent!!! Awesome vid. learned a lot!

  • @taiviniteai2100
    @taiviniteai2100 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    Merci pour cette présentation Dr Mancuso, travaillant aussi sur les plantes, votre démonstration est passionnante et éthiquement appréciable. Bravo

  • @doramos88
    @doramos88 5 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Loved the ending haha, awesome TED talk

  • @TBlev215
    @TBlev215 14 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    This is amazing! I never thought of this before in my life!

  • @MisterRyanW
    @MisterRyanW 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    His accent reminds me of those online text-to-voice readers. Not a bad thing. :p Great video.

  • @Khorien
    @Khorien 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    This guy has the best accent ever. I dont care for his constant anthropomorphication of plant life, but the idea of growing machines is an interesting one.

  • @CapriUni
    @CapriUni 13 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Love the time lapse of the sunflowers -- they're like a litter of puppies!
    But what the heck is that animated film doing, stuck on the end? Talk about a non sequitor!

  • @tempo3rd
    @tempo3rd 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    audio transcription is friggin hilarious!

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    @Prytanus Plants communicate with other plants. This happens for example when one plant is being eaten. The plant will send chemicals into the soil where roots of other plants will pick up what is being communicated and will go in defense mode. This doesn't by itself prove intelligence or consciousness, but it makes it extremely more probable.

  • @AlgeKalipso
    @AlgeKalipso 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    I like his ideas and investigations. I think he probably jumps into conclusions and asserts certain things without a visible reasoning. The part that I think is the most relevant of the talk is that where he shows that there are action potentials in the tip of the root of plants. He does not show, however, how these action potentials make an actual network with the rest of the plant (how does the information form one tip reach another and for what use).

  • @funnyguise
    @funnyguise 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    one of the best TED of late. Although, Paul Stamets made the connection between the internet and mycelia a while back

  • @f0b0m
    @f0b0m 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Excellent talk! Mind opening..

  • @mavaddat
    @mavaddat 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    @thernr Mancuso admits in a published paper that although plants have complex synapse-like structures, "Plants clearly lack any centralised control site and resemble colonies of social insects, like ants. Their development is proposed to be driven more by a collective specification than by central planning." So plants do not "feel pain" in any way that is even remotely sentient or conscious. It is more accurate to say that have stimulus-response mechanisms for external injury.

  • @Malcolm_99
    @Malcolm_99 5 ปีที่แล้ว

    Great! I would love this in 1080p :)

  • @akrulla
    @akrulla 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    "Where are the plants?" That made me laugh with embarrassement, not sure if I've ever done that before, lol. Why have I never thought about that?

  • @antonellodebellis8275
    @antonellodebellis8275 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    Good morning Prof. Mancuso.
    I appreciated with great interest the speech you published. I believe it has considerable implications and concrete possibilities.
    It is always a pleasure to admire Italian creativity and intelligence on the international scene.
    Some phonetic tricks would have given greater impact to the contents you have illustrated (above all, where they refer to well-known British naturalists).
    I also express the desire that you strongly support the possibilities that plants provide for the elimination of cruelty to animals.
    Thank you.
    Antonello De Bellis
    Buongiorno Prof. Mancuso.
    Ho apprezzato con molto interesse il discorso da Lei pubblicato. Ritengo abbia notevoli implicazioni e possibilità concrete.
    È sempre un piacere ammirare la creatività e l'intelligenza italiana sulla scena internazionale.
    Alcuni accorgimenti fonetici avrebbero conferito maggiore impatto ai contenuti da Lei illustrati (soprattutto, laddove si riferiscono a noti naturalisti britannici).
    Esprimo inoltre il desiderio che Lei supporti con vigore le possibilità che le piante forniscono alla eliminazione della crudeltà nei confronti degli animali.
    Ringrazio.
    Antonello De Bellis

  • @Saktoth
    @Saktoth 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus
    You are right, Mancusco is certainly anthropomorphising. He often looks at evolved traits and attributes this to intent (though calling something a 'clever adaptation' is still fairly common in biology). But plants are underestimated and discounted: They do move, they do sense, they do communicate and monitor their environment and respond to it.

  • @CapriUni
    @CapriUni 12 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I love this video -- but what is animated short doing at the end of this?! Non sequitur, ahoy!
    It's a very charming little cartoon. But it confuses me, in this context.

  • @mavaddat
    @mavaddat 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @DanHipp I agree the brain is a collective of modules, but this is not incompatible with it being a centralized planner. In people with, severed corpus callosum, for example, we see two "planners" in one body. See "Split-brain" on Wikipedia.
    Besides this, no one has ever claimed that plants are remotely sentient or conscious. They simply do not "feel pain" in any ethically relevant sense. For our purpose, this is the crucial point.

  • @emmydymme
    @emmydymme 12 ปีที่แล้ว

    These are great talks! Thanks TED

  • @Chimerathon
    @Chimerathon 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    @steve0281
    I would argue that nobody need feel guilty about eating any living organism. Especially with the intelligence of plants being called into question. The implication is that there would be little difference between choosing to eat one living thing with rudimentary intelligence over another. With no other alternatives, there is no moral dilemma.

  • @sidious501
    @sidious501 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I have to say I have a newfound respect for plants now

  • @tomdeiters7802
    @tomdeiters7802 12 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    It is not a very new observation that plants have intelligence, it is just that Stefano Mancuso, is framing it for the science/rational worldview. In many indigenous and spiritual traditions around the world everything has spirit whether it is plants, trees, rocks, rivers, mountains etc. So everything is alive and is imbued with spirit/intelligence/feeling and if we disturb the spirits in nature, lets say a tree, the tree spirit will react by causing sickness or ill fate to the disturber.

  • @mavaddat
    @mavaddat 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @DanHipp I only read the paper "Root apices as plant command centres: the unique ‘brain-like’ status of the root apex transition zone" by František Baluška, Stefano Mancuso, Dieter Volkmann, and Peter Barlow. They make the strong case for plant's intelligence, but do not mention anything like nociceptors in plants.
    I commend this paper to you (for its own sake, not to prove my point).

  • @MegF142857
    @MegF142857 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Kept thinking of old sci-fi movie, "Day of the Triffids".

  • @ratholin
    @ratholin 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @gspahr Well be fair to the guy. He spent his time in a botony lab and not a elocution lab. Brilliant mind. The quality of the thoughts and the passion for his work outweighed any small effort to understand him. There are a lot of native English speakers who're at the same level of diction but haven't near as many wonderful things to say.

  • @gulllars
    @gulllars 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Saktoth Agreed, intelligence arises out of physical interactions, be they chemical, electrical, or mechanical.
    Conciousness makes more sense in a physiological description of a biological entity, like differentiating between states of (sleep, awake), or thought location (concious or subconcious thought).
    Sentience makes more sense as describing if an entity is self-aware, be it biological or mechanical (computer).
    An example for observing self-awareness is behaviour when looking in a mirror.

  • @gspahr
    @gspahr 13 ปีที่แล้ว

    @TerminalSulcus Well, you have a very valid point. Thank you.

  • @drorjs
    @drorjs 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    plants may have systems similar to nerves but they probably work much much slower. maybe the more developed plants even have "thoughts" but again, each thought is created over a much longer period of time.

  • @feefriz
    @feefriz 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    i remember thinking "how do trees feel, sitting there for thousands of years, doing nothing. Must be depressing to be a tree" XD

  • @kasvo1199
    @kasvo1199 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Incredible

  • @Saktoth
    @Saktoth 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    @gulllars
    Physical structure is what determines chemical reactions. Structure is complexity. Chemical or electrochemical my point is that intelligence arises out of physical interactions.
    Really though, what do 'consciousness' or 'sentience' mean? How do you know them when you see them? Even from a broader, structural perspective, define how we know an organism has them? How would one expect such a thing to behave, which isnt dependant on other functions, like language or communication?

  • @MikeoWar
    @MikeoWar 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    02:05 pyramaaaajd :D
    Great video and great accent :D

  • @profjaykay
    @profjaykay 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    this guy is pretty cool, and w00t for the slug!!

  • @AlgeKalipso
    @AlgeKalipso 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @thernr Well, I've contemplated this issue before. Regardless of whether a plant is able to feel or not (which is certainly an open question. Mind you, we do know animals feel), a vegetarian diet still significantly reduces the overall suffering. This is why: To breed animals you need a lot of plants, hence if you eat meat, you are indirectly harming way more plants (about 19 times more) than if you ate the plant directly.

  • @Galshaer
    @Galshaer 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Love his accent, like mario is talking

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus I'm relatively smart (depending who you compare me to). More importantly, I've done enough research on mind-body research and theory to know how complex it is and to know how little is known. There is just not enough known about this subject to fairly state accurate probabilities. I didn't make an argument that things are unknowable. My argument is simply that withholding conclusive opinion is the most intellectually honest position to take until further research clarifies it.

  • @steve0281
    @steve0281 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Chimerathon I made my statement with a bit tongue in cheek. I agree with your assessment.

  • @SuperiorApostate
    @SuperiorApostate 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Watch the short movie at the end it is cool I've seen it before somewhere tho.

  • @puffaliaz
    @puffaliaz 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @JuriDee the ark and souls were simply to show that throughout human history and literature, we've assumed plants to be only somewhat alive, and only slightly above "rock" status

  • @שאולקפלן-י6ז
    @שאולקפלן-י6ז 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I heard your question on Noach
    I may have an answer
    I've had this question for years

  • @Saktoth
    @Saktoth 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus
    Descartes was actually a substance dualist, he was a physicalist only in regards to non-human things. But i know what you mean.
    Consciousness is the 'you', that perceives things. You cannot prove that anything has or does not have this thing.
    Intelligence is complex reactions in response to stimuli, it is compiling a large range of information and reacting dependent on that stimuli. A thing can be more or less intelligent. Plants are not -that- intelligent, but they are intelligent.

  • @TheGrapplingMonkey
    @TheGrapplingMonkey 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I want TED in HD :(

  • @mavaddat
    @mavaddat 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @DanHipp Ok, but do you disagree that plants are sentient or conscious in an ethically relevant sense (e.g., that they suffer from pain in the way humans or dogs suffer from pain)?

  • @DSBrekus
    @DSBrekus 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @DanHipp I`m not sure what you mean about John Searle. As far as needing a brain for intelligence I would agree in a limited sense, some form of high level information processing would appear to be required, not necessarily an animal like brain.

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus I don't know the name for the phenomenon. I was reading about it in a book about plant interaction. It's somewhere among my books, but I honestly don't know where it is. I have way too many books and they are presently in disarray. If I see the book, I'll try to find the section.

  • @corevil
    @corevil 6 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    nice vid

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @nelsyeung We can test for intelligence such as to see if a plant can learn about and adapt to it's environment. That is how we'd test intelligence in humans or other animals. What we don't understand is consciousness which can't be measured. We can't even determine that another person is conscious. We just assume other humans and other higher animals are conscious because they have similar behavior as us.

  • @dandelion8522
    @dandelion8522 11 ปีที่แล้ว

    Molto bello! Bravo !

  • @augustineleudar
    @augustineleudar 11 ปีที่แล้ว

    yes basically - but not just birds also mammals (ie us). There is even a theory in evolutionary biology that certain grass species (eg wheat) have evolved hinges on their seeds (ears) so that they fall off easier and are easier to harvest by humans - clearly a successful strategy .

  • @myronplatte8354
    @myronplatte8354 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    The biggest organism (that we know of) is a honey fungus, not a plant. Fungi ALWAYS get the short end of the stick.

  • @AlternicityBlogspot
    @AlternicityBlogspot 9 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    10:59 Do plant roots form 'small world' networks?

    • @lilaclizard4504
      @lilaclizard4504 6 ปีที่แล้ว

      no, they form a "world wide wood" (not mine, taken from another ted talk with a plant researcher)

  • @Imperiused
    @Imperiused 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @WeatherManToBe I never knew Mario was a botanist too!

  • @jinyeongoh7394
    @jinyeongoh7394 6 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Ah, 480p old friend

  • @kokofan50
    @kokofan50 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @BlowDevilUp to point was people always foreget about plants

  • @POLlyy23
    @POLlyy23 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    brilliant

  • @SvobodaTomas-X
    @SvobodaTomas-X 13 ปีที่แล้ว

    Excellent :)

  • @MelkorHimself
    @MelkorHimself 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    I had to watch this twice because the first time I could only think of Peter Griffin speaking Italian and the Mario Brothers.

  • @amerikarma
    @amerikarma 12 ปีที่แล้ว

    Awesome~

  • @Chirox82
    @Chirox82 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @BlowDevilUp If you actually watch the video beyond the first 30 seconds, you'll notice he was making the point that plants are overlooked in importance. The bible reference was just a common reference point that most people would recognize, he wasn't saying there was actually a flood.

  • @MastersOfInfinity
    @MastersOfInfinity 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    "That iz wrong"
    Is this the guy that does the Group X Hashmir lyrics?

  • @conoba
    @conoba 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    I like his accent.

  • @ppnnlearning
    @ppnnlearning 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    finally some gud video on ted

  • @SuperiorApostate
    @SuperiorApostate 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    I think this guy might take up substantial part in planet terraformation with Plantoids.

  • @kokofan50
    @kokofan50 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    that was cool

  • @thewinematcher
    @thewinematcher 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    I wish he would've showed us some of the work on the "plantoid hybrids". Doesn't seem like he has done much...

  • @gulllars
    @gulllars 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Saktoth correct on the literal meanings, but i disagree that reaction to stimuli require a sensing of senses, and that the terms are not usefull. Also humans being only a complex chain of chemical reactions is a fallacy.
    First; humans. We are made of of complex structures of chemicals, but the physical structure of the compounds play a major role. Also, our nervous system has an electrical component.
    If you analyse it from a the perspective of reverse engineering, the terms are usefull IMO.

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus Actually, that isn't a good analogy. A muscle (such as an arm muscle) doesn't move unconsciously, although some muscle reactions happen faster than consciousness. However, the human heart does move unconsciously, but the heartbeat can be altered through conscious intent. Anyway, you were speaking of a muscle moving because of unnatural stimulus. A plant moves because of natural stimulus. Plants will chemically communicate with other plants such as when one plant is being eaten.

  • @Saktoth
    @Saktoth 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus
    Oh, and if you are a physicalist, you should have no problem with the notion that plants (and computers) might be intelligent, or even conscious. These traits arise purely out of complex information gathering, comparing, storage, retrieval, and reaction. There is nothing else to it than that. If a plant has more complexly connected parts tasked with the gathering and interpretation of sense data, by what standard is it less intelligent?

  • @MrNarchya
    @MrNarchya 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Nice presentation. There is however one flaw in his speech. The biggest creature on the planet is a fungus, which spans almost 9 square kilometres.

  • @sparklymage
    @sparklymage 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    2:32 googly eyes

  • @Nekomesha
    @Nekomesha 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    so youra favorita footaballa teama, theya maka a touch goal???

  • @ratholin
    @ratholin 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @gspahr Yeah but I think it was to show how long human thought has excluded plants when it considers life. It was more in the way of a secular look at bronze age literature by the proxy of a picture in a magazine than a statement for or against religion, like his review of that renaissance chart or of Darwin's book in 1880.

  • @WeatherManToBe
    @WeatherManToBe 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    IT'SA ME! MARIO!

  • @gspahr
    @gspahr 13 ปีที่แล้ว

    You haven't heard my italian, 'cause I don't appear speaking it on any of my videos. And I doubt you are right, you can achieve native speech in any foreign language, given enough time and effort. Check out Richard Simcott here on youtube. He does a great job at that. And he's English.
    Side note: I make an active effort to sound as good as I can in my other languages, my first comment was about people's laziness to speak properly foreign languages, I just feel embarrassed when I hear them.

  • @Nighthawk799
    @Nighthawk799 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Read Michael Chricton book "Micro". Scary!!!!! But TRUE!!!!!

  • @davidjusuf
    @davidjusuf 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @thepianoaddict haha she said 'oh shit is he talking bout me?'

  • @gspahr
    @gspahr 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @ratholin You're right. Let me point out that I enjoyed the talk, even though quoting scripture troubled me.

  • @eLurkr
    @eLurkr 14 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    interesting... plantoids...

  • @Yaalah
    @Yaalah 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    SUBTITLES PLEASE.

    • @AnavonRebeur
      @AnavonRebeur ปีที่แล้ว

      Dumb racistic ignorant comment

  • @HAZERO_하제로
    @HAZERO_하제로 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    🐌 🌺 ❤

  • @gulllars
    @gulllars 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Saktoth Consciousness is a higher level of intelligence. Still higher you find sentience, which is self-aware concious intelligence. Human beings are scentient, and so the 'you' that percieve things may or may not require scentience. What's your thoughts on that?
    I agree btw on your point on intelligence and plants.

  • @Alyenbird
    @Alyenbird 12 ปีที่แล้ว

    13:31 - The advantage of having no hard body parts.

  • @shadman1911
    @shadman1911 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @MarmaladeINFP intelligence is defined as the ability to solve problems... unfortunately intelligence and stupidity aren't mutually exclusive in our species but they might me in other species.

  • @yuki953
    @yuki953 13 ปีที่แล้ว

    @TabuaGerenteDoItau no, hes a brilliance-ist

  • @HigherPlanes
    @HigherPlanes 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    He forgot to mention that mushrooms are the only other living organism on the planet that can communicate with language.

  • @xzaz2
    @xzaz2 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Genesis 9:3 (translated from Dutch) Everything that livesand moves will be your food this all i will give you...
    Plants are their but not mentiond directly.

  • @MrCattlehunter
    @MrCattlehunter 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus
    What, you think that it just magically divines the direction of the sun through some metaphysical means rather than being aware of it?
    Good luck proving that YOU are conscious, by the way.

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus Almost everything can be explained by purely chemical phenomena. Probability may seem low according to your own subjective assessment, but there is no objective way to measure the probability of something so far outside of our mammalian and cultural biases. Qualia are only ever present in your own experience. There is no way to measure the qualia in another's experience (especially an entirely different life form) or even if there is conscious experience.

  • @lovelife02
    @lovelife02 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    In the Bible there is a scripture that states the vegetation cried out to God...showing that there was life in plants.

  • @Saktoth
    @Saktoth 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Prytanus
    Firstly, Consciousness is not intelligence. These two things are very different, and he never mentioned consciousness.
    Secondly, something that was conscious but unable to communicate would look precisely like something that wasnt conscious. In fact, there is no way of determining if other humans even have consciousness, or are just very complex machines reacting according to complicated rules. You cant peak inside someone's mind and see their conscious experience.

  • @MarmaladeINFP
    @MarmaladeINFP 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    @Kargoneth To be honest, I remain sceptical of the intelligence of the average human. I'm less sceptical of the intelligence of plants.

  • @kinsmed
    @kinsmed 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hyperbolic... but not inaccurate.

  • @africkinamerican
    @africkinamerican 10 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I'm just glad that maple trees are smart enough to know that I love delicious maple syrup on a steaming hot stack of pancakes.

    • @akshatdhawan
      @akshatdhawan 9 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      +africkinamerican you should be grateful man !! Trees objective is not just to clean the air we breathe and make our houses look pretty.

    • @jotarokujo4791
      @jotarokujo4791 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Fun fact: I'm making pancakes while I'm reading ur comment •

  • @syntom1
    @syntom1 12 ปีที่แล้ว

    not aplant but a fungi is the giggest creature

  • @BriskAxe
    @BriskAxe 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    I'm hearing Mario speak a lot... where's Luigi?

  • @SikhiArt
    @SikhiArt 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    Who would have figured that the plant's brain was at its roots? That's science for you, counter-intuitive.

  • @artemovan86
    @artemovan86 14 ปีที่แล้ว

    LOL check out the blonde at the bottom left of the screen at 2:30