One day, mycelium may be able to prove that it is not the only conscious lifeform on earth.

Didn't make this, so only a guess, but the concept of plants "communicating" via mycorrhizae is probably why it's there.

Personally, I’m more a fan of the binary/discrete idea. I tend to go with the following definitions:

• Animate: capable of responding to stimuli
• Sentient: capable of recognizing experiences and debating the next best action to take
• Conscious: aware of the delineation between self and not self
• Sapient: capable of using abstract thinking and logic to solve problems without relying solely on memory or hardcoded actions (being able to apply knowledge abstractly to different but related problems)

If you could prove that plants have the ability to choose to scream rather than it being a reflexive response, then they would be sentient. Like a tree “screaming” only when other trees are around to hear.

If I cut myself my body will move away reflexively, it with scab over the wound. My immune system might “remember” some of the bacteria or viruses that get in and respond accordingly. But I don’t experience it as an action under my control. I’m not aware of all the work my body does in the background. I’m not sentient because my body can live on its own and respond to stimuli, I’m sentient because I am aware that stimuli exist and can choose how to react to some of them.

If you could prove that the tree as a whole or that part of a centralized control system in the tree could recognize the difference between itself and another plant or some mycorrhiza, and choose to respond to those encounters, then it would be conscious. But it seems more likely that the sharing of nutrients with others, the networking of the forest is not controlled by the tree but by the natural reflexive responses built into its genome.

Also, If something is conscious, then it will exhibit individuality. You should be able to identify changes in behavior due to the self referential systems required for the recognition of self. Plants and fungi grown in different circumstances should respond differently to the same circumstances.

If you taught a conscious fungus to play chess and then put it in a typical environment, you would expect to see it respond very differently than another member of its species who was not cursed with the knowledge of chess.

If a plant is conscious, you should be able to teach it to collaborate in ways that it normally would not, and again after placing it in a natural environment you should see it attempt those collaborations while it’s untrained peers would not.

Damn now I want to do some biology experiments…

it could be several spectra and what we call consciousness is a series of multiple phenomena

I'm inclined to believe every dynamic interconnected system is "conscious" to some degree. Not 1:1 with human consciousness obviously, but the same base phenomenon.

The main problem is that there aren't very good metrics to distinguish how primitive a consciousness is. Where do you draw the line between consciousness and reflex? Is each of your cells conscious in its own impossibly tiny way?

I think the big dividing line between what many animals do and what cells or plants do is the ability to react in different ways by considering stimuli in conjunction with memory, and then the next big divide is metacognition. I feel like there should be concrete words for these categories. "Sentient" and "conscious" have pretty much lost meaning at this point, as demonstrated by this discussion's existence.

I will call them reactive awareness, decisive awareness, and reflective awareness in the absence of a better idea.

They do, you can't hear it though.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/april/plants-emit-ultrasonic-popping-sounds-when-stressed.html

As a cat keeper.

Oh no you don't. Little shits think that I control the weather.

It's all a figment of my imagination after all

I will admit I get enjoyment from guiding pseudo intelligent down the path of discovering that absolutely nothing is real and for as far as we are able to detect everything may as well be the fever dream of a turtle.

When I was a little kid my mother always stopped by ancient trees to admire them. "Imagine if it could tell us what it has seen".

I think there's plot material in your comment.

You're basically describing elephants.

They have a deep, rich language of sub-acoustic rumbling and vibrations that can travel long distances. They have names for each other, and they have words for things like "human" and "bad human."

That's basically just how it is though. This meme is not at all supported by science

Ah yes, non-sequitur

When a tree is cut down or falls over due to age, the surrounding trees can help keep the stump and root network alive long beyond what we think is possible.

Just a little nitpick: vegans are omnivores too. Afaik, being omnivorous describes the biological ability to digest plant matter and meat. Voluntarily restricting ones diet for whatever reason does not remove this ability.