A Big Question of Consciousness

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve wrestled with my own thoughts and feelings about identity. Why am I, David, the person I am? How changeable is that? Where do those thoughts and feelings come from anyway, and what purposes do they ultimately serve? I suppose it’s no coincidence then that I’ve also always been so curious about the subject of human consciousness. That’s the area of science and philosophy — of human thinking generally! — that burrows most deeply into similar questions and, to varying degrees of satisfaction, offers a plethora of possible answers.

 

The best-selling author Michael Pollan has been thinking about these things, too. Throughout his work — which includes classic books like “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (2006), about why we eat the way we do, and “How to Change Your Mind” (2018), about the science and uses of psychedelic drugs — Pollan has waded into ideas about the inner workings of the mind. Now, with his forthcoming book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” which will arrive this month, he has jumped into the deep end. The book is both a highly personal and expansive multidisciplinary survey of questions around human consciousness — what it is, what causes it, what it’s for and what the possible answers might mean for how we choose to live. And as Pollan explained, with the rise of artificial intelligence as well as the relentless political pressure on our attention (that is, our minds), those questions, already profound, are becoming only more urgent.

 

I want to get some basics: How do you define consciousness? The simplest way to define consciousness is as subjective experience. Another one-word definition is “awareness.” Thomas Nagel, the N.Y.U. philosopher, wrote a piece back in the ’70s called “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” His idea is: If we can imagine it is like anything to be a bat, then a bat is conscious, because that means it has some sort of subjective experience. Why did he choose bats? Well, they’re very different than we are. Instead of using eyesight, they use echolocation. They bounce signals off of objects to move through space. We can vaguely imagine going through the world with echolocation. Whereas my toaster, I can’t do that. I don’t have a sense of what it’s like to be my toaster.

 

A big question of consciousness is what the philosopher David Chalmers has referred to as the “hard problem.” Can you tell people what that is? Basically how you get from matter to mind, how you cross that huge gulf from neurons to subjective experience — a gulf no one has managed to cross. Related questions are: Why don’t all these things we do go on automatically? Why do we have to be aware of anything? We could be completely automated and perhaps get along just fine. Your brain is monitoring your body and making fine adjustments in the blood gasses, in the heart rate, in digestion. There’s a lot going on that we don’t have to think about. So why do we have to think about any of it?

 

Some interesting theories have been proposed.

 

One is that some of the issues that we deal with have to be decided in a conscious way. When you have two competing needs — you’re hungry and you’re tired — which should take precedence? So consciousness opens up this space of decision-making [1].

 

The other argument is that we live in a very complex social world where I have to predict what you’re going to say; I have to imagine my way into your head. You can’t automate human social interaction. It has too many elements. So consciousness is very helpful in navigating that world [2].”

 

1. Conscious decision-making is required to prioritize competing needs, such as hunger versus fatigue, opening up a specialized space for, and, in many cases, requiring, careful, deliberative, and, at times, difficult, and, often, stressful, choices. Generally, addressing extreme fatigue first may be safer or more critical for cognitive function, while severe hunger might require immediate fuel to prevent metabolic issues, though both are often linked, as stress can cause hunger-like sensations when one is just tired.

Factors for Decision Making:

 

    Priority: If you are extremely tired, your cognitive, emotional, and, sometimes, physical, functioning is likely impaired, making rest a higher priority for long-term health and, for, safety, as mentioned on Slower Hiking. 

    Physiological State: Hunger can be a result of stress rather than a true need for calories.

    Decision-Making Space: Consciousness provides the opportunity to evaluate these, and, other, competing needs rather than relying on automatic, and, and, in some, cases, incorrect, actions.

 

2. This argument highlights the fundamental limitation of artificial intelligence in replicating the nuanced, high-stakes, and unpredictable nature of human social interaction. The assertion that "you can’t automate human social interaction" is supported by several key factors in the field of artificial intelligence and cognitive science:

 

    The "Imagine My Way Into Your Head" (Theory of Mind) Problem: Humans possess a "theory of mind"—the ability to infer the internal states, emotions, and intentions of others, including those that differ from our own. AI currently lacks this capacity for genuine empathy, relying instead on programmed responses that cannot truly understand the "why" behind human actions.

    The Problem of Too Many Elements (Complexity): Real-world social interactions are dynamic, multi-modal, and context-dependent. They involve simultaneously processing verbal cues, body language, facial expressions, and situational context. A 2025 study showed that over 350 AI models struggled to understand such dynamic scenes, often failing to interpret the "story" or emotional intent behind them.

    Prediction and Unpredictability: Humans constantly predict what others will say or do next to navigate social worlds, especially in high-risk or complex scenarios (like negotiations or deep personal conversations). AI operates best in structured, rule-based environments, whereas human interactions are often messy, non-linear, and "irrational," making them difficult to model.

    Structural Limitations in AI Development: Many AI neural networks are modeled after the brain's visual processing areas (which interpret static images) rather than the areas responsible for processing dynamic social, behavioral scenes. This creates a fundamental, structural "blind spot" in AI's ability to understand social dynamics.

    The Importance of "Situated" Cognition: Human interaction is embodied and "situated" in a physical and social context. AI lacks this physical grounding and shared experience, meaning it cannot "read the room" the way humans do.

In short, while AI excels at logical tasks and pattern recognition, it faces a significant, possibly insurmountable gap in navigating the high-dimensional, nuanced, and emotional landscape of true human interaction.