Intelligent Plants and No-so Intelligent UFO People

The current issue of The New Yorker [January 27^th, 2014] has Mail (to the Editor) about the recent article by Michael Pollan [The Intelligent Plant, December 23/30] which I used as a foray into UFOs being manned by intelligent alien plants.

Tobias Baskin, Professor in the Biology Department of The University of Massachussetts took author Pollan to task by opening his letter with this:

“Michael Pollan reports on a debate over whether plants have intelligence; they don’t.”

Professor Baskin goes on to equate plant movement with acclimation, saying “any resemblance to our intelligence [by plants] is superficial … The purpose of acclimation and intelligence is similar. But the means differ; it is the means that defines phenomena in biology.”

Mark W. Moffett of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution countered with a litany of plants that, for survival, appear to have thought, citing nomadic plants, such as the common philodendron which “meander through a tree’s canopy, acting like a snake searching for a place to bask.”

He goes on: “when  a canopy-dwelling plant, such as an orchid, falls from a tree, it’s likely to perish in the under-story shade. But the philodendron simply uncoils itself, crawls over to the nearest tree trunk, and climbs up again.”

Civilized ripostes by two academics, something we don’t get in UFO debates.

I recently received a comment from a somewhat known UFO aficionado. I didn’t publish the comment as it was filled with invective and spite, as the person tried to make points countering my views of his hypothesis about drug use affecting mental stimulation, causing UFO experiences.

He was angry that I didn’t post his comment.

But why would I do that? His whole purpose wasn’t to enlighten anyone; he merely wanted to cut me down to size or try to, envious that this blog gets much more attention than anything he does regarding UFOs.

I don’t go to other blogs, to be seen or to make comments furthering my UFO views.

And some who come here wish that I would provide their views for observation by visitors here, as there are more of them and my visitors are the crème de la crème of UFO mavens.

But me curtailing snide remarks by such persons irks them, as they think I should open my venue to their castigations, which may be likened to opening one’s home to riff-raff so they can come in and spit on the floor.

Yes, I’m short-tempered with uncivil and ignorant UFO persons. And I despise the incivility of some who think their remarks are god-inspired, allowing them to be nasty and stupid, in my spot on the internet.

Plants do have intelligence. That’s a given in some quarters.

Some UFO people do not have intelligence. That’s obvious from their comments and web-sites or blogs.

Such people should shrivel up and die, metaphorically of course.

And I want to be part of that group that refuses to water the roots of their jealous spite and irrational ravings.

After all, my ravings are more than I can contend with as it is…

RR