Enjoyed the opening chapter on my commute from Nashville to Murfreesboro this morning. Excellent! And may I offer a much-belated thanks, Michael, for your having taken the time back in '99 to respond with constructive comments to the unsolicited draft chapter of my Vanderbilt dissertation on William James and consciousness. It was such a generous act on your part, and came for me at the most opportune moment. And now I'm president of the William James Society (wjsociety.org) - thanks in no small part to your kind encouragement.
So looking forward to reading A World Appears! Love all your books and how you are so calm and reasonable. Thank you!! I really thought after In Defense of Food, everything would suddenly change with the food industry, but a lot changed around my own actions, so maybe that's a good thing!
Your work has changed my wife’s and my life for the better! Greatly appreciated How to Change Your Mind!!! Can’t wait to read your new one-already bought it
Really appreciated this book — especially the move away from anthropocentrism toward a more substrate-agnostic account of mind. The willingness to treat plant capacities seriously without collapsing into mysticism is refreshing.
Where I’d gently push back is on the move that then seems to re-anchor “consciousness” in biology via Damasio-style affect. If feelings are grounded in homeostasis, vulnerability, and self-maintenance under constraint — the question isn’t whether silicon can replicate biology, but whether those deeper invariants can be instantiated in non-biological systems.
In other words: is biology the source of feeling, or just one implementation of a more general coherence-maintenance process?
That’s the direction I’ve been exploring in a framework called Structural Qualia — looking at valence not as “what it’s like in carbon,” but as tension gradients in any system that must preserve itself over time.
Already enjoying the audiobook very much. What a fascinating topic and of course logical next step in Mr. Pollan’s literary and intellectual journey.
I appreciate his wide ranging and open-minded exploration of consciousness. However, I’m not sure I agree with his assertion that computers probably won’t ever develop a form of consciousness. If they do, perhaps it’ll be a somewhat different form or “flavor” than that of humans and other biological life forms. Furthermore, the computers of today are not the computers of tomorrow. If consciousness turns out to be simply an emergent property of cognition that has reached a certain level of complexity, it may just be a matter of time before computers get there, for example with quantum computers.
Maybe this topic is also discussed in the book, and I’m getting ahead of myself. Looking forward to digesting the rest! =)
Enjoyed the opening chapter on my commute from Nashville to Murfreesboro this morning. Excellent! And may I offer a much-belated thanks, Michael, for your having taken the time back in '99 to respond with constructive comments to the unsolicited draft chapter of my Vanderbilt dissertation on William James and consciousness. It was such a generous act on your part, and came for me at the most opportune moment. And now I'm president of the William James Society (wjsociety.org) - thanks in no small part to your kind encouragement.
So looking forward to reading A World Appears! Love all your books and how you are so calm and reasonable. Thank you!! I really thought after In Defense of Food, everything would suddenly change with the food industry, but a lot changed around my own actions, so maybe that's a good thing!
I received my copy today from Amazon. ❤️
Congrats on the book, Michael. I very much enjoyed your other books, and look forward to reading this one.
Loving, loving your book! I think it points to the fact we are still so far from understanding consciousness ( despite the AI crowd’s hubris).
Your work has changed my wife’s and my life for the better! Greatly appreciated How to Change Your Mind!!! Can’t wait to read your new one-already bought it
Thanks for helping me change my mind Michael. Se you in Sacramento!
Congrats!
Really appreciated this book — especially the move away from anthropocentrism toward a more substrate-agnostic account of mind. The willingness to treat plant capacities seriously without collapsing into mysticism is refreshing.
Where I’d gently push back is on the move that then seems to re-anchor “consciousness” in biology via Damasio-style affect. If feelings are grounded in homeostasis, vulnerability, and self-maintenance under constraint — the question isn’t whether silicon can replicate biology, but whether those deeper invariants can be instantiated in non-biological systems.
In other words: is biology the source of feeling, or just one implementation of a more general coherence-maintenance process?
That’s the direction I’ve been exploring in a framework called Structural Qualia — looking at valence not as “what it’s like in carbon,” but as tension gradients in any system that must preserve itself over time.
If you’re interested, I wrote a piece outlining that approach here: https://defaulttodignity.substack.com/p/what-a-tree-feels-when-it-reaches
I've been devouring the book. Such a timely topic in the context of AI especially!
Already enjoying the audiobook very much. What a fascinating topic and of course logical next step in Mr. Pollan’s literary and intellectual journey.
I appreciate his wide ranging and open-minded exploration of consciousness. However, I’m not sure I agree with his assertion that computers probably won’t ever develop a form of consciousness. If they do, perhaps it’ll be a somewhat different form or “flavor” than that of humans and other biological life forms. Furthermore, the computers of today are not the computers of tomorrow. If consciousness turns out to be simply an emergent property of cognition that has reached a certain level of complexity, it may just be a matter of time before computers get there, for example with quantum computers.
Maybe this topic is also discussed in the book, and I’m getting ahead of myself. Looking forward to digesting the rest! =)
Ordered today and am definitely going to chase you down on your tour.