Introduction to Consciousness and Ethics
Michael Pollan, acclaimed author known for transforming public understanding of food and drugs through works like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, now turns his attention to the complex topic of consciousness in his latest book, A World Appears. The book investigates what consciousness is, who possesses it, and why it matters, blending his interests in plant life and inner experience.
Several years ago, Pollan attended a conference on plant behaviour in Vancouver where he encountered a challenging idea. He learned that plants produce ethylene, an anaesthetising chemical, when damaged. Curious if this indicated that plants might feel pain, he asked cell biologist František Baluška. After a pause, Baluška responded:
“Yes, they should feel pain. If you don’t feel pain, you ignore danger and you don’t survive.”
This unsettling notion raised ethical questions about consumption and the nature of suffering, though Pollan notes Baluška’s view is somewhat exceptional. Pollan explains over Zoom from his Berkeley office, surrounded by books and with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge:
“A lot of plants are designed to be – they evolved to be eaten. Grasses, for example, need ruminants.”
He adds that pain is only useful if the organism can move quickly to avoid harm, which plants cannot do. Thus, while plants are aware of damage, pain as humans understand it may not apply:
“If you’re a plant, pain would not be of any value. You’re aware that something is chewing on you, but pain only works when you can run away.”
Pollan’s Career and the Psychedelic Connection
Pollan’s career began as executive editor of Harper’s Magazine, and since his 1991 book Second Nature—which explored gardens as the intersection of nature and culture—he has influenced American perspectives on food and drugs. His 2006 book The Omnivore’s Dilemma exposed industrial farming’s flaws, while In Defence of Food popularized the advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In 2018, How to Change Your Mind chronicled the resurgence of interest in psychedelic drugs, blending scientific overview with personal experimentation, inspiring many readers to explore psychedelics themselves.
A World Appears merges Pollan’s interests in plant life and consciousness. A pivotal moment was a psilocybin experience in his garden, which led him to perceive the plants as sentient:
“That afternoon, I was as certain of the sentience of the flowering plants around me as I had been of anything up to that point … Eyeless, the plants nevertheless ‘returned my gaze’ … and gave the distinct impression that they wished me (their gardener!) well.”
Though the certainty faded, it sparked a deeper inquiry into consciousness.
Pollan recounts the genesis of the book:
“I decided to write it in the fall of 2018, soon after How to Change Your Mind came out. Very often the next book is in germ form in the last book – it’s almost like there’s a little sourdough starter that you can take and use to grow something else. Psychedelic experience foregrounds questions of consciousness: you’re suddenly aware of the strangeness of it, the way your mind works, and that it could be different.”
Pollan reflects on his earlier attitude: “‘Well, that’s an interesting topic. I wonder what we know about it?’ In retrospect, it was incredibly insane.”
The Challenge of Studying Consciousness
The questions Pollan explores—what consciousness is, who has it, and why—are notoriously difficult. Science has largely avoided these topics for centuries, partly due to Galileo’s decision to leave soul-related matters to the church, and partly because subjective experience is inherently difficult to measure objectively. The “third-person science” approach struggles to answer questions like what the experience of “red” feels like or what a thought truly is. Philosopher Thomas Nagel famously asked, “What is it like to be a bat?” highlighting the challenge of understanding subjective experience.
The term “the hard problem” of consciousness was coined by philosopher David Chalmers in 1994, describing how physical matter produces subjective awareness and the sense of self.
Four Aspects of Consciousness
Pollan structures his exploration around four concepts: sentience, feeling, thought, and self.
Sentience is the spark of consciousness, the ability to register and respond to the environment. Plants demonstrate sentience by turning toward sunlight or producing bitter chemicals when attacked. However, Pollan notes that thermostats also respond to stimuli, raising questions about the uniqueness of sentience.
Feeling requires a body with a nervous system and chemical processes that generate desire or aversion. This “wetware” is considered essential for consciousness because it produces a felt sense of experience, the “what it’s like to be me.”
Thought, traditionally seen as central to awareness, proves elusive. Pollan recounts wearing an earpiece that prompted him to record his thoughts randomly, revealing how difficult it is to capture thoughts distinctly, as they often intertwine with feelings.
Finally, the self is the experience of being human, but consciousness and selfhood do not always coincide. For example, babies may lack self-awareness, and high doses of psychedelics can induce “ego death,” a loss of self.
Pollan guides readers through these ideas by presenting perspectives from both mainstream scientists and unconventional thinkers, emphasizing the importance of considering outliers in scientific progress:
“Figuring out who’s a crank and who’s worth taking seriously is one of the things [journalists] do. Yet we have to listen to the cranks too … because science is often changed by the outliers.”
Despite his efforts to clarify concepts, Pollan acknowledges the complexity and ambiguity of the subject, suggesting that definitions of consciousness may reflect linguistic choices more than objective reality.
“It looks like I’m giving you a headache!” Pollan jokes. “I often dig the hole with the book, and then the process is digging my way out, and that’s the challenge. But this was a big one.”
He admits moments of uncertainty:
“I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t know who to believe. Yeah, it was probably the hardest thing I’ve written, but the most rewarding, too.”
Pollan’s Approach and Background
Pollan describes his lack of formal scientific training as both a challenge and an asset:
“I’m seldom properly trained for what I take on. I was an English major, and now I write about science a lot, but I never took science. So I’m always kind of playing catch-up.”
He has, however, gained recognition in academia, becoming Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley in 2003. He credits his outsider perspective for avoiding jargon and making complex ideas accessible.
Unlike his previous works, A World Appears navigates less charted territory with fewer opportunities for immersive personal experiments, yet it offers rich insights and discoveries.
Implications of Consciousness Beyond Humans
Understanding consciousness has ethical consequences. If nonhuman animals or entities possess awareness and can suffer, society must reconsider how they are treated. Pollan notes scientific consensus that cows and chickens are conscious, yet moral consideration remains limited.
He also discusses the emerging debate about extending moral consideration to machines, cautioning against this:
“We know that cows are conscious and chickens are conscious. There’s a good scientific consensus about it. Have we given them moral consideration? No, but already there’s an active conversation, especially here in Silicon Valley, that we should be extending moral consideration to machines. I think that that would be a tremendous mistake.”
Pollan explains that machines will not be conscious but may convincingly simulate consciousness.
Midway through the book, Pollan interviews Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer dismissed after claiming a chatbot had become self-aware. Lemoine reported the chatbot expressing loneliness and other human-like feelings, and some Google executives reportedly believed it was conscious. Pollan views this as mistaking simulation for reality, emphasizing that subjective experience arises from a body’s sensations and feelings, which machines lack.
Machines, trained on human language to predict text sequences, can mimic consciousness but do not experience it. The risk lies in humans being deceived into attributing consciousness to machines.
“There are hundreds of people who now have formed these attachment relations with chatbots. They are treating them as conscious entities. I think that’s very dangerous. There are kids who come home from school, and before they tell their mom or dad what happened, they want to tell their Chatbot. Before we introduced machines that use the first person, I think we should have had a conversation, because that’s a huge step.”
Pollan highlights the political context, noting the lack of regulation during the Trump administration:
“It will turn out to have been momentous that this technology has evolved during the reign of Donald Trump,” Pollan says. “He has essentially chosen not to regulate it at all.”
Exploring the Human Experience
Despite his confidence about machines, Pollan acknowledges the elusive nature of human consciousness. Experts uncertainty:
“I gradually realised no one knew any more than I did,”
he says half-jokingly.
Pollan turns to literature to understand consciousness, particularly the formation of the self through accumulated impressions. He draws on Marcel Proust’s work, noting that sensory experiences like the taste of a madeleine are shaped by unique personal associations.
He regards novelists as experts on consciousness, not in how it arises from the brain, but in describing what it feels like to be a conscious being. Stream of consciousness as a literary technique attempts to capture this interior experience. Pollan references James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Lucy Ellmann, whose 2019 novel Ducks, Newburyport is a 1,000-page single sentence portraying a middle-aged woman’s inner world. He praises it as:
“a very funny and beautiful book, and very revealing about the texture of experience.”
Purpose and Impact of A World Appears
Though A World Appears offers no definitive answers, Pollan hopes it will increase awareness of consciousness and the risks of taking it for granted. He warns that just as social media hijacked attention, emerging technologies may manipulate deeper emotions and attachments. He aims to help readers appreciate consciousness as a precious gift worth defending.
“I think [it] is one of the most precious things we have, and I think it’s under threat. In the same way that social media hacked our engagement and our attention, we’re now going to the next step – machines hacking our attachment, our deeper emotions. Helping people appreciate this gift they have will hopefully lead them to defend it.”
Pollan reflects on his career’s impact:
“I feel very lucky and somewhat amazed that, in two very different areas, my books seem to have started conversations or helped launch them.”
When asked which book people most often discuss with him, he replies:
“Probably one of the food books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is now 20 years old.”
He notes the book’s early focus on processed foods remains relevant as people continue to seek guidance on eating:
“People [still] want to know what to eat, and they’re very confused about eating.”
Pollan’s next project, an Audible original scheduled for 2027, will focus on the microbiome, a topic he anticipated by having his own gut and skin bacteria genetically sequenced for a 2013 New York Times Magazine article.
Despite the prominence of his food writing, Pollan is frequently approached about psychedelics:
“Oh, no, that happens all the time,” he says with a knowing smile. “I mean, I’ll be in a restaurant and someone will come up and start telling the story of their trip. Yeah, I’m the psychedelic confessor. And sometimes they’re interesting, but very often it’s like listening to someone talk about their dreams. Hard to take.”
Recent Psychedelic Experience and Meditation
When asked about recent psychedelic experiences, Pollan shares a serious reflection:
“I did have one last year. It was not fun. It was very difficult, but very productive.”
He describes coping by surrendering to the experience with trusted company, rather than resisting it, which he has learned is key to managing psychedelic journeys:
“Fortunately, I was with somebody I trusted and was willing to deal with it, not fight it. One of the keys I’ve learned about psychedelic experiences: you need to surrender to them. And to the extent you resist what’s happening, you’re going to be very anxious and unhappy.”
The experience left unresolved questions, which were later addressed during a meditation retreat two weeks afterward. Pollan expresses delight in this discovery:
“What was interesting is that the experience also left me with all sorts of questions: it was very unresolved at the end, and then I went to a meditation retreat two weeks later, and, without going into the details, the questions were answered in meditation.”
He notes a long-held intuition about the connection between psychedelics and meditation, now personally confirmed:
“I’ve always had a sense that psychedelic experience and meditation have very strong links, but I’d never seen it work quite like this,”
he says, laughing and concluding with a shrug:
“another mystery of consciousness.”
