Yet this is the same type of work people are using to argue that that crabs/fish can feel/experience pain. Proving or disproving consciousness is basically impossible.
E.g. I feel like a lot of people aren't conscious :) Prove me right or wrong?
E.g. I feel like a lot of people aren't conscious :) Prove me right or wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)
These days most people are conscious because you need it to function in society; there is a good deal of evidence in the book.
Not really: a fundamental requirement in the assessment of pain reception in animals is the presence and stimulation of nociceptors (pain receptors). Plants don’t have any nerves, so they fundamentally lack pain reception. It’s entirely possible that they have developed an alternative system to experience pain (e.g. via analogous action potential signalling) but at this point our conventional model of pain reception completely breaks down.
Just because the mechanism exists for sedation or pain does not imply the experience of consciousness or pain.
But we have to eat. I'm no longer sure what's more ethical: eating something dead meat or vegetables that are still alive.