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Much of Earth’s life moves and communicates on a time scale
humans cannot hope to comprehend.
—Mose Feldenkrais
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The plant that directs its growth tendency to the light does not understand the arithmetic of wavelengths; it simply perceives light as good in the form of a positive affection. […]
Today’s botanists have used ingenious experiments to confirm the subjectivity of plants. They observed that identical plant clones — multiple vegetative twins whose DNA sequences are identical to the letter — behave differently, even though room temperature and substrate moisture are the same. They are clones, but their bodies unfold into individual shapes. They individually choose between different options. […]
Every sprout has its own preferences. Each is an individual, not simply an automaton carrying out a genetic blueprint. […]
Intelligence, according to the meaning of the Latin verb intelligere, means to be in between, to be able to choose. It signifies the ability to make a decision, and hence the judgment of a distinct self for whom a choice means something — survival, growth, flourishing. In this sense intelligence and life are one and the same thing.
—Andreas Weber
The Biology of Wonder
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