A World Appears
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After spending six years investigating where consciousness comes from, Michael Pollan finds no overarching explanation Consciousness is thought by many to define what it is to be human. We know that animals are conscious to some extent, but they don’t have what we have in that department. So if we can explain how human self-awareness…
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Why do we experience consciousness? Tim Crane This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of David Chalmers’s book The Conscious Mind. Chalmers – only thirty years old at the time – was trained as a mathematician in his home city, Adelaide, and had studied philosophy in Oxford and Indiana before becoming a professor at…
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Under the influence of psychedelics, many report that plants seem to be alive. Is it wrong to assume we’re the only sentient beings? The International Dictionary of Psychology opined in 1989 that consciousness was “fascinating but elusive” and “nothing worth reading has been written on it.” I disagree. Consciousness isn’t entirely elusive. We grasp it…
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A new book by Michael Pollan explores the puzzles of the mind. “A FASCINATING BUT elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written on it.” That is how “The International Dictionary of Psychology” described consciousness in 1989. Michael Pollan’s excellent new book…
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In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need ‘consciousness hygiene’ to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms Each day when you wake up, you come back to yourself. You see the room around you, feel your body brush against your clothes and think about your plans, worries and hopes for the…
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“A World Appears” explores what makes you you. A coherent explanation of consciousness eludes modern science. In “A World Appears,” Michael Pollan dives headfirst into the mystery. Why does it feel like something to be you when you wake up in the morning, and like nothing when you’re in a deep sleep? Why do we…
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His new book, about the mystery of consciousness, strengthens the case that technology will never truly replicate humans. Here is a possibility worth holding in mind, just for a moment. What if humans are something better than machines? For that matter, what if it isn’t close? In a way, the thought sits uneasily. For about…
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Science journalist Michael Pollan has written extensively about the therapeutic benefits of mind-altering psychedelics. His new book, ‘A World Appears,’ asks, what is consciousness? “Consciousness has kind of become the secular substitute for the soul,” he tells Terry Gross. Pollan also talks about current studies on consciousness and whether plants and artificial intelligence have consciousness. …
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The journalist and polymath probes the mysteries of the mind in this unsettling yet life-affirming investigation You can read Edward Posnett’s full review for the Guardian here.
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Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, plant biologists and novelists have all grappled with the mysteries of conscious experience, to an uncertain end. If you have access to Nature, you can also read this review by Christoph Koch on its website. Humans and other animals have subjective inner mental lives, seeing, smelling, imagining, remembering and feeling emotions such…