What Is It Like to Be You? Michael Pollan Confronts Consciousness
In his latest book, the bestselling author explores the deepest mystery of the mind at a time when awareness itself feels under siege.
Illustration: Petra Péterffy for Bloomberg
Michael Pollan is up-front about what his latest book won’t do. A World Appears (Penguin, Feb. 24) doesn’t solve the hard problem of consciousness. (It’s considered hard for a reason.) It doesn’t settle the age-old debate between those who believe subjective experience can be reduced to the electrochemical chatter of neurons and those who suspect something more ineffable is at work.
What it does instead is something both humbler and more useful. Moving through neuroscience labs, philosophical debates and a visit to a cave in New Mexico, the book quietly pushes the reader to become more conscious. That’s no small thing at a moment when some of the world’s most powerful companies have staked their futures on blunting awareness, absorbing us in infinite scroll and training us to relinquish our critical thinking to artificial intelligence.