Science
Related: About this forumThe Mental Life of Plants and Worms, Among Others
by Oliver Sacks
Charles Darwins last book, published in 1881, was a study of the humble earthworm. His main themeexpressed in the title, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Wormswas the immense power of worms, in vast numbers and over millions of years, to till the soil and change the face of the earth. But his opening chapters are devoted more simply to the habits of worms.
Worms can distinguish between light and dark, and they generally stay underground, safe from predators, during daylight hours. They have no ears, but if they are deaf to aerial vibration, they are exceedingly sensitive to vibrations conducted through the earth, as might be generated by the footsteps of approaching animals. All of these sensations, Darwin noted, are transmitted to collections of nerve cells (he called them the cerebral ganglia) in the worms head.
When a worm is suddenly illuminated, Darwin wrote, it dashes like a rabbit into its burrow. He noted that he was at first led to look at the action as a reflex one, but then observed that this behavior could be modifiedfor instance, when a worm was otherwise engaged, it showed no withdrawal with sudden exposure to light.
For Darwin, the ability to modulate responses indicated the presence of a mind of some kind. He also wrote of the mental qualities of worms in relation to their plugging up their burrows, noting that if worms are able to judge
having drawn an object close to the mouths of their burrows, how best to drag it in, they must acquire some notion of its general shape. This moved him to argue that worms deserve to be called intelligent, for they then act in nearly the same manner as a man under similar circumstances.
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http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/apr/24/mental-life-plants-and-worms-among-others/?insrc=wci
WhiteTara
(29,699 posts)The planet itself is intelligent.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)WhiteTara
(29,699 posts)use their intelligence and are so terrified of death (they can't even think the word-except in violent movies when against someone else) that they NEED to control everything because they can't control themselves (ie, not change or die.)
I'm sure at death rigor mortise sets in at about 1 minute after death they are so calcified in life.