The plant body, which has evolved as an adaptation to a terrestrial habitat, includes extensive root systems that anchor the plant and absorb water and minerals from the soil; a stem that supports the growing plant body; and leaves, which are the principal sites of photosynthesis for most angiospermous plants. Michael Pollan’s book, The Botany of Desire, tells the story of four familiar plants—the apple, the tulip, the marijuana plant, and the potato—and the human desires that link their destinies to our own.
The ancient relationship between bees and flowers is a complex one, with the flower manipulating the bee into hauling its pollen from blossom to blossom. Angiosperms, vascular seed plants, are the most advanced plants found to date, with the seeds covered within the fruits. They have co-evolved with insects to carry pollen from one plant, and natural selection designed flowers to communicate with insects, birds, and even mammals like us.
Angiosperms share two universal and unique characters: their ovules are enclosed in a modified leaf called a carpel. Due to their effectiveness as insect pollinators, these flowering plants have become the major group of terrestrial vascular plants. They also drive the evolution of the animals that pollinate them, mainly insects, and can build complex forest structures.
In conclusion, the specialization of the plant body, including extensive root systems, stems, and leaves, is a key aspect of understanding the complex relationships between plants and humans. By examining the role of angiosperms in our world, we can better understand the complex interplay between plants, insects, and humans.
📹 Michael Pollan: “Cannabis, The Importance of Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire”
Michael Pollan presented his lecture as the 2002-2003 Avenali Chair in the Humanities at the Townsend Center for the …
What are the unique things about angiosperms?
Angiosperms are flowering plants with vascular systems, consisting of stems, roots, and leaves. They develop seeds inside a flower, which later transforms into a fruit. Originating around 250 million years ago, they make up about 80 of all living plant species on Earth and play a crucial role in our ecosystem, providing food for humans and animals. They can grow in various habitats and can be found in trees, herbs, and shrubs.
What is the botany of desire explained?
The Botany of Desire is a nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan, which explores the selective cultivation, breeding, and genetic engineering of plants. The book covers four types of human desires: the apple for sweetness, the tulip for beauty, cannabis for intoxication, and the potato for control. The stories are a blend of plant science and natural history, ranging from the true story of Johnny Appleseed to Pollan’s first-hand research with cannabis hybrids in Amsterdam.
Pollan also discusses the limitations of monoculture, such as the Irish Lumper potato breed in Ireland, which made the Irish population vulnerable to a fungus, leading to the Great Famine. Farmers in Peru, where the potato originated, traditionally grew hundreds of distinct varieties to minimize pest exposure and famine risk. The book was used as the basis for the PBS program, The Botany of Desire.
What is the botany of desire about?
The Botany of Desire is a nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan, which explores the selective cultivation, breeding, and genetic engineering of plants. The book covers four types of human desires: the apple for sweetness, the tulip for beauty, cannabis for intoxication, and the potato for control. The stories are a blend of plant science and natural history, ranging from the true story of Johnny Appleseed to Pollan’s first-hand research with cannabis hybrids in Amsterdam.
Pollan also discusses the limitations of monoculture, such as the Irish Lumper potato breed in Ireland, which made the Irish population vulnerable to a fungus, leading to the Great Famine. Farmers in Peru, where the potato originated, traditionally grew hundreds of distinct varieties to minimize pest exposure and famine risk. The book was used as the basis for the PBS program, The Botany of Desire.
What is unique to angiosperms?
Angiosperms are plants with unique features such as ovule enclosure in carpellary tissue and pollen tube growth via carpellary tissue to the ovules. Several angiosperms have been described from the Yixian formation, but most are dubious. ScienceDirect uses cookies and all rights are reserved for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. Open access content is licensed under Creative Commons terms.
Why did the Dutch go crazy for tulips?
In the mid-1600s, the Dutch experienced unprecedented wealth and prosperity, thanks to their independence from Spain and the Dutch East India Company. As a result, art and exotica became fashionable collectors’ items, leading to a fascination with rare “broken” tulips. These prized tulips were initially purchased as display pieces, but soon became a market of its own. Six companies were established to sell tulips, prompting people to take advantage of a desirable commodity.
What is the Dutch tulip theory?
The tulip craze exemplified the greater fool theory, which posits that individuals will purchase assets based on the assumption that others may be willing to pay a higher price than they did.
What are the four gracious plants?
The four gracious plants—plum blossom, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo—were a symbol of the spirit of life for classical scholars of the Joseon dynasty, known as Seonbi in Korean.
What is the argument of desire?
C. S. Lewis’s “Argument from Desire” is a unique argument for the existence of God, characterized by significant disagreement over his purported argument. The argument is unique in its polarization of disagreement over his purported argument. While some argue that Lewis’s “Argument from Desire” is the most interesting argument in human thought, others point out that the phrase was first coined by John Beversluis in 1985. The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis does not mention an “Argument from Desire”, making it legitimate to question if Lewis intended it as such.
An abductive “Argument from Desire” can be constructed based on Lewis’s remarks in four major works: The Pilgrim’s Regress, Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, and Surprised by Joy. In Mere Christianity, the “Argument from Desire” can be summarized as “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”. This is not a syllogistic argument arguing from premise to conclusion, but rather an inference to the best explanation from a given phenomenon of desire.
A possible deductive approach to Lewis’s “Argument from Desire” is given by Robert Holyer, who argues that “Joy” is a desire for some object, as all natural desires are desires for an object that satisfies them.
What are the four plants in the botany of desire?
In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan explores the relationship between humans and domesticated plants. He links four fundamental human desires – sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control – with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. Pollan’s documentary film, which premiered on PBS in October 2009, demonstrates how plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. The film explores who is truly domesticating whom, and the relationship between humans and plants.
What is the importance of flowers for angiosperms?
Angiosperms are successful due to two unique reproductive structures: flowers and fruit. Flowers ensure pollination and protect the ovule and embryo inside a receptacle. Fruits play a crucial role in seed dispersal and protect the developing seed. Different fruit structures reflect dispersal strategies.
Flowers are modified leaves or sporophylls organized around a central stalk, with the same structures: sepals, petals, carpels, and stamens. The peduncle attaches the flower to the plant, while the calyx encloses the unopened floral bud. Sepals are usually photosynthetic organs, while petals display vivid colors to attract pollinators.
The female organ, the gynoecium or carpel, consists of styles, stigmas, and ovules. The carpel can be singular, multiple, or fused, and can be singular, multiple, or fused. The carpel produces megaspores and female gametophytes, while the style leads from the sticky stigma to the ovary, which houses one or more ovules that develop into seeds upon fertilization.
The male reproductive organs, the stamens (androecium), surround the central carpel, consisting of a filament and an anther. The filament supports the anther, where microspores are produced by meiosis and develop into pollen grains.
What is the thesis of the botany of desire?
“The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World” by Michael Pollan explores the relationship between humans and plants, arguing that humans select specific traits for cultivation and plants manipulate human desires to ensure their survival and proliferation. The book is divided into four sections, each focusing on a specific plant and corresponding human desire: sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control. Pollan argues that these plants have evolved to satisfy our innate yearnings, leading to their widespread propagation and cultivation.
📹 Cannabis Forgetting and the Botany of Desire: Michael Pollan
Contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, …
It’s interesting the uterus has cannabinoid receptors and explains why it was always a perfect antidote to sever period cramps in my 20s. Funnily enough it wouldn’t get me high when I smoked it for pain relief but it sure as hell fixed crippling menstrual cramping. It should be prescribed to women who experience terrible pain during menstruation.
Michael Pollen is brilliant, and he possesses a fresh and clever sense of humor. I discovered through personal experience that Cannabis stops and prevents the dreaded Hot Flashes and mood swings. I’d like to know how this is accomplished. I figure Cannabis is a natural food for humans, and that the lack of Cannabis in our diet brings on the negative hot flashes and mood swings as a result.
Although I have enjoyed many controlled substances for recreational purposes all throughout my life, I discovered I didn’t want to use them whenever I was involved in healthier physical and intellectual activities. Peer pressure and being unsupervised at a young age led to my experimenting with them, a psychological addiction to marijuana, health issues, abhorrent behavior resulting in a criminal record and a tremendous waste of time and money. The failures of much more meaningful personal relationships and loss of time not spent with loved ones, while being involved with the use of mind altering substances, have been the greatest tragedies of my life. Use your mind to figure out how to have fun without damaging it, lest you prove yourself to be lacking in intelligence. Our mere discovery of these substances is no more reason to use them than eating dog poop because you found it in your yard. I support the research of anything that can be used medicinally, but let’s not forget that drugs are for the sick. Take it from someone who has had decades of experience and knows the truth, because I’m still plagued from time to time with an insatiable desire to burn one. Every drug I ever took or drop of alcohol I drank was a mistake that defined me as a dumb ass!
i am an artist and sooo many of my artist friends are hung up on weed. Many do other ‘stuff’ too. Not one of them proves to be enlightened. They drug out because they can’t handle their heads. MEDITATION is the path to well being and Spiritual growth. The joy increases as i go deeper on the inward journey. When i was in the hospital the nurse gave me a morphone shot and asked “How do you like it?” i told her “No place i haven’t been on my own”. MEDITATION!
Mr. Pollen does good service . . . excellent service in using his credibility as a respected author to help illuminate areas of consciousness that mainstream mostly considers off limits, at least superficially. The only complaint I have with Pollen, something he does with this Berkeley talk and to some extent with his latest book, “How to Change Your Mind”, is his unwillingness to plant the flag for freedom of consciousness. He always slips into his talks and books the “qualifiers”. They are transparent and hypocritical and unworthy of someone ostensibly making the point, in his own way, that a society so intrusive that it deigns to tell its citizens what they can and cannot do with their own minds, is just plain facist. Things are changing, slowly, and to a great extent thanks to the likes of Mr. Pollen and his books and lectures which are rubbing this material under the noses of the fundamentalists and other double digits, but these sly disclaimers he taints his message with are craven and unworthy. If we as citizens of a country where the pursuit of happiness is written into our constitution, cannot do as we choose with our own minds – then that constitution isn’t worth the hemp it was written on. I guess he’s leaving it for others to decry the hypocrisy of this country’s laws that allow cigarettes and alcohol – two of the most deadly drugs on the planet and sold in every corner store, to thrive while incarcerating and often ruining the lives of those whose interest in consciousness alteration leads them to less sordid and more interesting substances.
I was pondering this other day, that we (as humans) “work for plants. We provide everything for them. We spread their seeds, we reproduce them on a large scale. Farms are nothing more than plant factories. They take up more real estate than all animals combined. All they have to do is taste good or provide a fiber or a drug that we want or need. Plants have maximized the energy of the Sun, we are only now making a very weak attempt to capture the energy….plants have done this for at least 13,000,000 years ago. Clearly M. Pollan was decades ahead of me. Good article.
not to mention the respiratory benefits of growing plants in the same room you sleep in. the vapor pressure deficit working to benefit us by pulling toxins out of our lungs. Also the sedative and relaxing benefits because of the smells, the flavors, the colors all of this draws us to it. Entourage effect at work
What’s even more weird about memory is that without it our sense of time dissolves. We need memory to record the past and calculate survival strategies, a function of ego. To extend this further, time is a function of entropy and the difference between the chaos of new sensory data to the order of organised and structured data. It’s the movement between these states that gives the illusion of time moving in a linear way. So our ability to remember and forget are intrinsic to our experience of reality itself, by changing the function path of memory we change our experience of reality. Much like meditation who’s primary goal is to dissolve all sensory input and witness reality beyond the material world. But even meditation is a hack of the system to produce endogenous chemicals that alter our sensory experience.
maybe the sacrifice of short term memory is worth the creative glorious beauty that comes from being high. As you said, great musicians, writers, etc create from the glory they feel inside the moment… the oneness with all. who cares who you saw at the grocery store, its not important. finding and realizing your own oneness with the Father of all creation… and all…. is the only point period! 🙂 thank you MJ
I believe that Muriel Hemingway the actress remembers every minute of every day of her life. I’ve heard her interviewed and when given a random date and year and she is able to recall, for example, the acting job she was at, who all, by name was there, what they said, ate, did, etc. And does it minute by minute with complete detail. Such powers of observation as well as recall, seem supernatural, or at least beyond normal. It is amazing to witness.
The first time I smoked weed after 15 years I asked the question, “What is the fruit of the original sin?”. It took me 3 years to figure it out. Attachment is the eating part and judgement is the fruit (produced by the knowledge of good and evil, the tree’s namesake). Forgiveness it’s spitting it up and grace is leaving at the tree.
Hendrix was/is a big fave of mine. I know alot about Hendrix’ music. I have performed most of the songs of the first 2 albums. Hendrix was often stuck in the 12 bar blues style. He needed more time to mature. He often made alot of noise when he performed. “VooDoo Chile” and “Here my Train…” are good examples of his improvs. He also dabbles into good jazz on the “Axis” album.
At the age of 54, I have just completed my Masters degree in education, and believe me cannabis played an important role in thinking and writing critically, it allowed me to open up my mind and enter deep fruitful thought. I achieved a distinction. I have been using cannabis virtually everyday since I was around 16. I left school at 15 with no qualifications and I am now a professional teacher of children, a master carpenter. mechanical engineer, computer programmer, a good artist and also a fair guitarist. I have a theory……..
Very interesting the proposal that plants and animals may evolve to keep their genes going rather than a single being all existential and such like and so evolve to be tasty so as to be consumed and therefore carry your memory into the future by making people grow more food because it’s tasty. Yet as a musician and writer I realise that that’s exactly what I am trying to do existentially by staying remembered and having my words and songs and suchlike ‘consumed’ and so going on into the future.And it’s interesting that if a song or guitar lick is good you refer to it as tasty.
I got in to weed when about 20 and learned to grow my own, and it was better than anything I bought on the street. But I gotta say that sometimes I became very paranoid and I think the cannabis stirred up some deep emotional pain that I had. I also had memory loss and often couldn’t find my way home (if I was out) It effected me quite badly and I lost a large profitable company and my marriage because I couldn’t think my way through problems anymore. I stopped smoking dope when I turned 33 and I’m 66 now. I still have severe memory loss and can’t plan out a days actives anymore I can still find my way home but sometimes I have flashbacks and I know I’m in a familiar place but don’t know where I am. I could accept that I have repressed emotions that marijuana has highlighted but I really wish I had never used it as my mind is fairly messed up.
We’ve recently discovered that not only do plants communicate, but that they can scream out when in pain. I’d say that plants are far more advanced than humans to be honest. They can grow so easily in the environment – all they need is soil, water and carbon dioxide. We have to grind it out working all hours and breaking our backs toiling to survive. They’re miles ahead of us.
I am quite intrigued by the theory of “find, get effed up, and forget” as a botanical defense strategy being (at least part of) the explanation behind low-order psychotropic agents. Surely, this could be investigated more closely using cats and their favorite dope. Cats being social creatures, however, the ones that do manage to remember (assuming the posited “forget” mechanism is valid) where the weed is, will lead the clueless to it. Control groups could be problematic, but it would be really interesting to dig deeper into this. At face value, there seems to be validity there, it fits with basic precepts already known in botany and other areas of biology. The long and the short of marijuana legalization, is that you really should push for it being totally struck off the list at the federal level. The real reason why cannabis is regulated in the United States and elsewhere is because of the overwhelming commercial potential of cannabis fiber and the clear and immediate threat this posses (and posed in the 1930s) to other, entrenched sources of commercial industrial fiber. Just have a gander at the history of the Marijuana Act of 1937, and realize and accept that all of the propaganda about marijuana (the drug) was just a smoke-screen to hoodwink the pearl-clutching Puritan in you (and, if you are American, one of these lives inside you, whether you have Puritan roots in fact, or no — it is woven into our ‘culture’) into surrendering an easy, legitimate, environmentally sustainable, economically efficient means of making a living.
All this talk about forgetting and remembering, and missing the greatest insight of short-term memory loss is EXPERIENCING THE NOW. So far, you haven’t mentioned the most important moment in all of Buddhism and other spiritual practices. Well, sort of talking about “the moment” . . . the emphasis on forgetting doesn’t appeal to me (it may to others) because the essence remaining after forgetting is ignored.
Simple answer to a simpler question. The definition of being high, on the level of perspective by the one that is high. Being high is believing that you are in control of all your physical and mental circuits and that you can manifest a desired pychic result There is no generic right or wrong answer. Because, the term being high is nothing more than a manufactured explanation for actions that are otherwise unexplainable. So when someone says that someone is high, it only means that someone has consumed a substance that results in widely differing consequences. So, the simple answer is, being high is whatever you think it may be.
At pprox 0:30:00 I say It wasn’t just the musicians using pot. What Pollan is saying I think is more attributed to the listeners using pot beforehand and then more accepting acid-rock or jazz. Pot use is very limited for performing of musical improvisation, it will throw ones timing off. The performance of music, good music, is a very disciplined process.
Over an hour for this guy to remember it’s important to forget. Bravo. Go ask a Shaman. He said when asked about his opinion of me n my people talking to plants “I’m more of a western skeptic. My plants don’t talk to me.” What exactly does he think the sensation of hunger is? It’s plant conversation in different language expressed in our relationship with plants so profound it produces physiological effects.
I don’t know I haven’t smoked weed I’m probably 20 years on a side note 46 minutes 42 seconds I definitely have a similar problem being brought up as a photographer since a very small age I can associate I mean number or sentence with an experience in life automatically and I always bring that memory back to me like you said I get plagued by it I sometimes don’t have the capacity to let go even remembering things from 3 or 4 years old at a certain sentence and image will trigger another interesting side note Gematria since the age of maybe eight I was always drawn to the number 5 plus 5 equals 10 recently I decoded my name and found a ton of fives there incredibly strange
52 Cannabidiol. Says can’t get it for two reasons: can’t be patented, and has the side-effect of euphoria. So he doesn’t realise that hemp is the male of the plant with lots of cannabidiol and almost no THC, whereas it’s the female of the plant has the THC. You can buy hemp / CBD in shops in the UK now, but the THC of the female is still illegal.
I gotta agree. While I don’t think it would be a great idea for most people to the drugs that I have done, there are a bunch of folks out there that would benefit by some shrooms on occasion! Just sayin! Ask your doctor…. Or lawyer…I have a three hundred pound Samoan lawyer that I could recommend!!
I think you should reconsider wether or not plants have consciousness….if you go back to the early earth history…the trees had few leaves, and very few ways of reproducing…as the onset of herbivores came about, plants started to proliferate in many interesting ways…they started to produce more fruit/seeds, designed to allow creatures who feed on the fruit, to cast out their seeds at the same time, this would speed the seeds far & wide…Other plants developed prickles to ward off herbivores, they developed thick waxy leaves more difficult to eat, & they discovered toxins…all of these seems to be a conscious response to the treat they faced…these efforts for the better part were very successful in this effort…in fact the only creature that they couldn’t defend themselves against was the human instinct to cut down & burn the forests for the purpose of human expansion.
Gnosis moment… The tree to not eat of is the animal tree, creature trees, they know if evil is done, we are given the plant trees to eat from. Some hidden gnostic wisdom teachings found, Essene Gospels of Peace and other Gnostic texts, First Psalm. Good Father made the good plants, not the ones that take over and kill others …moderation. We are to not overlord other’s bodies or lands.
Weed can make the fight or flight response stall out for long periods of time based on how much you abuse it. Granted, My smoking is or …was highly abusive. Nobody talks about it but it definitely frustrates the sense of well being. Im sure weve all seen someone slip into psychosis/panic attack after smoking. This is definitely a psychological blindspot in the drug community. We’re all so invested in getting these things legal we dont dare mention the negatives. They do exist but most people need to smoke a ton of weed to get to that point, and their method of intake has to be pretty good. This is just my experience… but i had to quit because it really has unraveled my life. I realized i was living in a constant state of panic for almost a decade, but i normalized it because i loved to smoke. When it got unbearable, i began to take benzodiazipines to counter the anxiety. It worked for about 5 years, but now im dealing with the weird anxiety of letting go of benzos. I guess that old saying is really true, “all things in moderation.”
For every integration with anything like atoms ballance and how well frequenceing reconstruction of it to differentiate between structuring it to solids A quantum idea is reviled and being in a new age of enlightenment to be able to understand prefacual expressions with out thought of asking why don’t they have mind in a super magnetic resonance of
I LOVE you, Michael Pollan!,,, However, I HATE using uhm, um, ummm every few sentences. For some, it is a thought crutch ‘cuz they can’t think clearly on their feet. For you, it must be a self-humbling for acceptance from us not-so-bright other humans because you are a FANTASTIC thinker! Please stop ummming!
me had ta stop at 24:00 cause this man is not too bright, he sees all this here incredible designs and calls it evolution like this shit just happens. Design requires a designer/creator, any true scientist knows this fact. This does not detract however from the veracity of the content he puts forward, jus bes carefuls ta sorts he opinion from de facts jack. : ) Loves ya i does
Uum God is the genius and the author. Um He is the designer and the Life. Um moderation is the key. Um ah um, Say UM much? Plant some garden genes on your head. Um ah um it might help. Umm I had some antyrythyms for ya but..um ah Umm I um forgot! Oh, I just discovered a new word! UUmm! ah Umm ah Yeah!
I have a friend who got a medical marijuana card for her Crohn’s disease. Unfortunately, she was already an alcoholic and smoked frequently. Now she is an alcoholic pot head who chain smokes! She has gotten 10 times worse than she was before she started smoking every day. She no longer has an off switch. She got her last DUI because she was smoking pot while driving. Since she has started smoking pot, she has lost 2 very good jobs because she sent inappropriate emails to colleagues while she was high. She increased her cigarette smoking which has inflamed her Cronh’s and caused her to have 2 surgeries. She has become extremely depressed and threatened to kill herself. She was under house arrest for 6 months and she lost her license for 18 months. When she does get her license back, she will be required to blow into a meter to be able to drive the vehicle. This lecture sounds like a nice fantasy of a utopia society, but you really must be high if you think smoking pot is going to improve anyone’s life! I see it as a last resort to feel good for someone who has nothing left. Sad…
WHY can’t the THC be there to simply be medicine / to get us ‘high’. How did he come to so confidantly beleive that these benefits could only be by accident? And I’m not even bringing up the fact that we have THC RECEPTORS in our brains. he sounds in this regard like just another pre-tenure academic worried about his reputation with those perusal him as well as his next paycheck and so has devolved into an apologist for THE MAN
Too much unscientific use of teleological language! Please, plants and animals do not evolve in order to intentionally reach a goal … thanks for self correction up to a point, blaming it on the limitations of our language; as Wittgenstein said, the limitations of my language are the limitations of out thought, or was it world? But thanks for all your books.
God wanted to keep the knowledge of good and evil from us (53:26). Having just the knowledge of good (like all the other animals) is a lot easier. But once the malic acid activated the gene for the knowledge of both good and evil in our specific gnome then we have a choice. It has been passed on in that activated state epigenetically and the price is spiritual death if one chooses evil. So it says in the Bible and the earlier Coptic texts.
well actually, the bible does talk about an herb where we can smoke, somewhere in psalms, i believe. Look, its not that God wants you to smoke something you are going to abuse, or get something that is illegal. What God really wants for you is to become Born Again and repent of your sins. This is the only way to Heaven, for nothing else can save you.
A talk on why creationism is true . Just look how complex the world is. Plants ‘working’ on developing molecules to attract incescts, or to repel insects ? I mean really ? Does this guy really believe this a result of so called evolution. I question to him would be did plants start ‘ working’on developing this characteristics and features before they grew or after ?
good lecture. it’s also interesting that hemp shares a perfect ratio of essential fatty acids with the human body. there’s a lot of interesting natural symmetry. although i agree that “scientists don’t understand consciousness yet,” i also believe that hallucinogenic research is perhaps our best opportunity to do so…
When I first began to grow reefer, I had the sense that the plant had made itself attractive to humans. I believe that reefer and people have the longest relationship of any plant. The most important commodity primitive man needed was cordage.Hemp was by far the best source and while retting the fiber, one would soon have hashish (and entertainment). Millet to attract primitive chickens like pheasant. Man would have learned about cultivating plants FIRST with cannabis.
Also see: “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High” and The Future of Psychedelic and Medical Marijuana Research. – Andrew Weil M.D. ”The war may not be quite over but any stigma still left lingering around cannabis consumption today is largely restricted to out of date and increasingly unenforced pieces of legislation. So indelibly stamped on our culture has cannabis become that it must now rank as the most popular and controversial plant on the planet.” – Nick Jones
This notion that plants survive and flourish in the human world by enticing its caretaker, either as food or drug, is compelling. The human animal, indeed, figures prominently in plant evolution and survival, however, this is not to say that the plant is equipped, by dint of its respective properties, to continue on. Plant traits are selected by humans, and so, it is human agency-not plant, per se-that is the driving force of plant variation and hardiness.
At 31:29 is where I sort of disagree. It was more the listeners who took pot in the late 60’s, then accepted the music, after listening to it, this helped acid-rock or jazz based music more into the mainstream. It wasn’t just the musicians using pot. Pot use is very limited for performing of musical improvisation, It has it’s uses in music in general. The performance of music, good music, is a very disciplined process. Pot may interfere with that process.
Just for anyone who will go… the reason the bee gets the polan is because the plant is red… well I like red but I don’t eat a berry or take it because its red… we learned to do most of this from perusal animals right… an most of what humans have learned is from other humans… how does a bee which always forgets know how to get polan and turn it to honey… I believe this information comes from else where a spiritual radio signal you may say… 🙂
Im re-watching it now and i think you might me right altough: plants have no conciousness? i have to counter that with watch?v=-EdNvI9TMA8 these expiriments (watch all parts)very clearly prove in some way that plants do have conciousness or am i wrong? (maybe a diffrent tipe of counciousness. (dont mind the spelling pls)
Even though how many scientists claiming THC’s and cannaboids ups and downs, it is still a drug and affects people in different ways. I smoked about 1 gram per day for more than 2 years, but for some years ago i quit. Mostly because i felt the addiction, but also because i had harder times learning new things. I’m not saying you should smoke or not, its up to each person to decide if its good for them or not.
@Chiudeu why do you get hungry? an how do you know your hungry? how do you naturally know what foods would work for you… by this i mean how does the bee know it needs polan? An that it can eat polan? Or take it to make honey? How does your body know with out been told know how to break food down? It can either have learned how to do it somehow or its pre programmed… where does this programming come from??
I do strongly disagree with the notion of legitimization through legalization, as this certainly insinuates the state as the controlling authority. A true legitimization, I believe, would entail a paradigmatic shift in how culture relates to the plant, and that would be a seismic shift from the present course of prohibition and persecution.
Hmm, Huxley’s quote “is dark”? Sure, blame the messenger, blame the quote itself. Or does Huxley’s quote reveal the darkness, how much we’ve darkened life? Can we bring light back in2 life, even bring life back 2 life? Please, for posterity! That was at 24:00. Then at about 34:50 he as much as says human improvisation would be nowhere without THC. Maybe we do have 2 forget & forgo our hold on reality to break the shell & open out into the actual new, but of course there R other ways out o cage