Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In How Emotions are Made , Lisa Barrett asks the famous Zen question: “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” As mentioned in an earlier blog , her book is about the “theory of constructed emotion”: “Emotions are not reactions to the world. You are not a passive receiver of sensory input but an active constructor of your emotions.” Barrett answers the Zen question in the context of the theory of constructed emotion: “A tree falling itself makes no sound. Its descent merely creates vibrations in the air and the ground.” It becomes a sound only if “something special is present to receive and translate them: say, a ear connected to a brain”.   Here’s the connection she draws to the constructed-emotion theory: “A sound, therefore, is not an event that is detected in the world. It is an experience constructed when the world interacts with a body that detects changes in air pressure, and a brain that can make those chang...

At one point, a kauri tree fell somewhere in New Zealand. The tree rotted away leaving behind just the stump, “leafless and apparently dead”, writes Ed Yong. But when botanist Martin Bader knocked on the stump, it didn’t sound like deadwood. Was it alive? If so, how? They found the stump is connected to other kauri trees, probably via its roots: “The water flowing through the full-size trees also drives water through the stump, keeping it alive. It will never green again, never make cones or seeds or pollen, never unfall, never reclaim its towering verticality. But at least for now, it’s not going to die, either.” And that just raised questions: “How best to think about the living stump? Is it a vampiric parasite that sustains its undead existence by leeching the supplies of its fellow trees? Is it a beneficial partner that extends the root network of those other kauri in exchange for water? Is it even an individual entity anymore, or just a part of its neighbors?” I...