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Inspired Entertainment (INSE) Uses Paddy Power Renewal to Reinforce Its Retail Betting Base
Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:INSE) is one of the best e-gaming and sports betting stocks to buy now. The company strengthened its betting-shop exposure on May 6, when it extended its long-term agreement with Paddy Power to remain the exclusive provider of gaming terminals and content across Paddy Power’s UK retail estate. The agreement matters because […]
Revision of Regulations for Grazing Administration, Small Business Roundtable
The Office of Advocacy is hosting a virtual roundtable focusing on the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposed rule, “Revision of Regulations for Grazing Administration, Exclusive of Alaska.”Date: June 30, 2026Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ETMeeting Pla
Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Orion,’ Starring Andrew McCarthy, Debby Ryan and Drew Van Acker, Set for Theatrical Release via Blue Harbor Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)
A festival favorite film is now headed to theaters. “Orion,” a sci-fi thriller starring Andrew McCarthy (“Pretty in Pink,” “St. Elmo’s Fire”), Drew Van Acker (“Pretty Little Liars,” “Titans”) and Debb...
Exclusive | Databricks Releases General AI Agents for Businesses
The data-analytics company is pushing further into AI applications for general work as it aims to carve out a place in the artificial-intelligence world.
‘Unbelievable’ waste and inefficiency at MoD, says ex-defence minister Al Carns
Exclusive: Carns, who quit last week, says he was angered by unwillingness to confront sunk costs of legacy programmes
What's the average age of first-time homebuyers across Europe?
Fewer than seven in ten EU households live in owner-occupied homes. Euronews Business takes a closer look at the age at which Europeans buy their first home, which varies widely across the continent, based on exclusive data provided by RE/MAX.
Kate Beckinsale Signs With Strand Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)
Actress Kate Beckinsale has inked with Strand Entertainment for management. She continues to be represented by Kleinberg Lange.
'Moana' star Auliʻi Cravalho is Jessica Cruz in 'My Adventures with Superman' universe (exclusive)
'My Adventures with Superman' will debut 'Moana' star Auliʻi Cravalho as Jessica Cruz before she headlines the Green Lantern spinoff. See an exclusive first look at the character.
Jay Shetty Says His 'Body Couldn't Keep Up with His Vision' Before Prioritizing This One Aspect in His Wellness Routine (Exclusive)
The global bestselling author and podcast host, 38, talks to PEOPLE about his health journey and latest partnership with BIOptimizers.
Electronic Arts Introduces EA Advertising, Launching Brands Directly Into Gameplay and Live Experiences
Connecting brands to highly engaged audiences through an exclusive EA SPORTS Partner Program, in-game integrations, creative partnerships, and scalable advertising capabilities across EA’s global portfolio Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), the global leader in interactive entertainment, today announced the launch of EA Advertising , a new platform transforming how brands connect with audiences through digital and real-world experiences across its global portfolio of games. EA sits at the intersection of entertainment, sports, technology, music, and culture. Across console, mobile, and PC, our games and services reached more than 120 million players 1 each month during fiscal year 2026. Together, this scale and frequency of engagement create meaningful opportunities for brands to connect with audiences through authentic, interactive experiences. EA SPORTS is one of the largest interactive sports platforms in the world, connecting hundreds of millions of players across console, PC, and
HMNC Brain Health announces $50 million first closing of Series B financing and a strategic partnership with MEDICE
Financing will accelerate the development of HMNC’s neurosciences portfolio, including Phase 3-readiness activities for Ketabon (KET01) and Nelivabon (BH-200)Agreement grants MEDICE exclusive European commercialization rights for KET01, with tiered double-digit royalties and significant milestone payments MUNICH, Germany, June 15, 2026 – HMNC Brain Health ("HMNC" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage neuroscience company, today announced the successful $50 million first closing of its Series B fin
Report: Unannounced The Witcher Multiplayer Game Slated for PC & Mobile; Gameplay Details Revealed
Exclusive details on a new unannounced Witcher multiplayer title reveal a F2P co-op action RPG set in 1230 with custom Witchers, and more.
NHS staff battling wave of food supplement disinformation
Exclusive: Cancer charity says dispelling falsehoods gleaned from social media is now routine task for clinicians
Months After the FBI Raided His Garage Chemistry Lab, Teen Science Prodigy Graduates from College (Exclusive)
"It was all an unfortunate misunderstanding," says 18-year-old Amalvin Fritz, who is applying to medical school and launching a biological science startup
Exclusive: Iran sealed uranium cache and placed mines amid fears of US operation to seize material
In recent weeks, Iran has dramatically escalated efforts to seal off its cache of near bomb-grade uranium, deliberately collapsing tunnels and booby-trapping entrances with explosive mines, according to five sources familiar with US intelligence.
'Monopoly' Movie: Lionsgate Developing Two New Takes (EXCLUSIVE)
Monopoly movie development is pressing ahead at Lionsgate, with two scripts in development from star writing teams Widener & James and Angelo & Blum.
Exclusive: US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran’s uranium, but Trump paused it, sources say
The US’ top general made a secret, rushed visit to US Central Command headquarters in Florida late last month to be briefed in person on plans for the US military to send ground troops into Iran to forcibly seize its highly enriched uranium, the key component necessary to produce a nuclear weapon, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Brian Bille Appointed General Manager Of Learfield’s Mississippi State Bulldog Sports Properties
Learfield, the exclusive multimedia rights holder of Mississippi State Athletics, has announced Brian Bille as the General Manager of its locally based team,...
EXCLUSIVE: Flexjet buys Steve Varsano’s The Jet Business | Corporate Jet Investor
TikTok’s favourite business jet broker has been bought by Flexjet. Steve Varsano, founder of The Jet Business will become president of Flexjet.
Lionsgate Sets Early Winter 2027 Release For 87Eleven Entertainment Action Thriller ‘Karoshi’
EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has set a Jan. 29, 2027 theatrical release for the 87Eleven Entertainment dystopian future action thriller, Karoshi from filmmaker Takashi Doscher. Doscher wrote and directed the ...
Nicholas Weinstock’s Sweetheart Entertainment Inks First-Look Deal With Prologue Entertainment
EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-nominated producer Nicholas Weinstock (Severance, Escape at Dannemora) has signed a first-look deal with Prologue Entertainment, the independent film and television studio that produce...
Exclusive | Waymo Readies First National Ads as Rivals and Critics Proliferate
Alphabet’s driverless car service seizes the World Cup stage to try to humanize its technology.
Jake Weiner's Harvest Hill Entertainment Signs Four (EXCLUSIVE)
Jake Weiner's Harvest Hill Entertainment has signed multi-hyphenates April Blair, Michael Yuchen Lei, Mina Rhodes, and Nick Funess.
Waymo sharpens stand-alone business with a $30 monthly subscription
Waymo is launching a subscription program that gives members priority pickup and other perks that are exclusive to its proprietary app.
Cedric The Entertainer Signs With IAG
EXCLUSIVE: Independent Artist Group has signed actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer for representation across the board. IAG will also represent A Bird And A Bear Entertainment, Cedric’s producti...
Juliano Valdi takes us behind-the-scenes of Michael Jackson biopic (exclusive)
'Michael' star Juliano Krue Valdi is sharing happy memories from the set of the Michael Jackson biopic, including hilarious moments with costar Colman Domingo and winning $50 in a bet with director Antoine Fuqua.
‘Criminal Minds’ Fans, Here’s What the Showrunner Really Thinks About Connor Storrie Being in ‘Heated Rivalry’ (Exclusive)
Exclusive | Nvidia Is Developing an AI Healthcare Model With Startup Abridge
The chip giant is joining with the maker of AI note-taking technology to train a model tailored for clinical conversations.
Xbox CEO Openly Floats the Need for Third-Party Exclusives and “Potential M&A” to Win in Hardware, PC, Mobile, and Streaming
Xbox’s CEO says the platform may need third-party exclusives and potential M&A to compete across hardware, PC, mobile, and streaming.
Manheim Twp. man creates \'bartender\'s handshake\' coin for World Cup
There's a secret handshake among bartenders with high-end drink programs, and it involves an exclusive, rare coin.
Opinion | Health system growth and high-value care can go hand in hand
Expansion and value do not have to be mutually exclusive. Health care organizations should not have to choose between growth and quality, or between operational sustainability and patient-centered care. In fact, when integration is done well, those goals can strengthen one another.
Xbox Exclusives, Showcase Without Blade, Elder Scrolls 6, More From Matt Booty
Xbox leadership shook up its strategy this week with the reveal that "Gears of War: E-Day" and "Clockwork Revolution" would be Xbox exclusives.
Gears of War: E-Day – Everything We Learned Behind Closed Doors at Xbox
IGN interviews The Coalition to find out more on Xbox console exclusive Gears of War: E-Day.
Jack Innanen offered “Heated Rivalry” season 2 role but couldn't accept due to production conflicts (exclusive)
Fans have long dream-cast the "Adults" and "Big Mistakes" star for the new season, which is set for 2027.
Xbox CEO Ties Future Exclusives to Business Health, Signaling a Possible Return to Multiplatform if Sales Slip
Xbox CEO said the business isn't currently healthy, which is why there are 2 exclusives. To do more, the business would have to get healthier
Xbox CEO outlines strategy to prioritise cost-efficiency and exclusive titles over premium hardware
"We will continue to look at new business models – that's what is needed rather than premium, high-performance consoles," says Asha Sharma
Exclusive: Vance welcomes Pope Leo's input amid Trump's feud with pontiff
Vice President JD Vance took a conciliatory approach to the Vatican in a USA TODAY interview after Trump sparred with Pope Leo over Iran.
Global Broadcasters Take ‘Best Medicine’ As Raft Of Deals Land For Fox Series
EXCLUSIVE: A slew of international deals for Best Medicine have closed. Sky has scored UK rights for its channels and NOW streaming service, marking a kind of homecoming for the show, which is based o...
Exclusive: SBA's Kelly Loeffler predicts AI will fuel Main Street growth
Despite economic fears, Americans are filing to start new businesses at near-record rates.
Emmy Rossum and Liz Meriwether unpack their 'twisty' crime thriller 'Furious' in exclusive first look
'Entertainment Weekly' has your exclusive first look at Emmy Rossum and Liz Meriwether's 'twisty' new crime thriller, 'Furious': 'I want people to be on the edge of their seat.'
Thai Actress & Singer Ally Nitibhon Gets U.S. Representation
EXCLUSIVE: Thai actress and singer Ally Nitibhon is signing with management firm Industry Entertainment for U.S. representation. Nitibhon stars as a series regular in Netflix’s popular Thai crime-dram...
Health risks of alcohol accelerate after one drink a day, study finds
The new study, which relied exclusively on U.S. health data, assessed relationships between average alcohol consumption and the risk of disease or death.
HBO Max To Be Offered Through Prime Video In New Zealand
EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max will roll out on Prime Video in New Zealand when it launches later this year. The service debuts next week on June 16 and will offered to viewers locally through Prime Video, includ...
From Emilia Clarke to Paul Rudd, see the stars at our 2026 Tribeca Festival studio (exclusive)
Hayley Erbert and Derek Hough, Alison Brie, and more dropped by EW and PEOPLE's photo studio in NYC.
Xbox explains new exclusives policy: players "can expect a reliable pipeline" of exclusive titles in service of "turning around the business"
Matthew Ball says "we know how we're going to make those decisions," with internal and external communication to follow
Xbox Promises A 'Reliable Pipeline' Of Exclusives That 'Validates Their Historical Investment' In Xbox
'Players can expect a reliable pipeline that validates their historical investment in the Xbox platform'
Colman Domingo stars in trailer for movie shot in 'every available' format — including new IMAX lens (exclusive)
Take an exclusive look at Colman Domingo and Abigail Breslin in the trailer for 'Chapter 51,' the upcoming movie that utilizes 'every available film format' — including one never used before.
Xbox exclusives are back and more complicated than ever
The next Gears of War is an Xbox exclusive, but Halo isn’t. What’s going on?
Serious Mental Illness Startup Vanna Health Taps New CEO
This is an exclusive BHB+ story. For the first time since its founding in 2021, serious mental illness startup Vanna Health has a new CEO. Dr. Liz
Serious Mental Illness Startup Vanna Health Taps New CEO
This is an exclusive BHB+ story. For the first time since its founding in 2021, serious mental illness startup Vanna Health has a new CEO. Dr. Liz
Exclusive: Political pressure threatens to undercut EPA science evaluating chemical safety for consumers, sources say
Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper.
Exclusive: Political pressure threatens to undercut EPA science evaluating chemical safety for consumers, sources say
Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper.
Xbox has clarified its approach to console exclusive games, after last night's PS5 snub for Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution caught many off guard
Xbox's big multiplayer and live service games will continue to be multiplatform, Matt Booty has said.
Another Pixel-exclusive feature just vanished, and the replacement comes with strings attached
For most owners it changes nothing. For a few, it quietly costs more.
Matt Booty Explains Xbox's Plans For Exclusive Games Going Forward
"We know exclusives are important"
Xbox's Strategy On Console Exclusives Just Got More Confusing
Some first-party games will never come to PlayStation 5 but lots of others will
XBOX Games Showcase 2026 Recap: The Return of Exclusives, World Premieres, and Anniversary Hardware
XBOX Game Showcase 2026 just concluded. Find out everything announced - from the return of exclusives, to anniversary hardware, to games from XBOX and our partners – inside.
Bellevue-based T-Mobile wants to sell a lifestyle, not just wireless
The second-largest U.S. carrier's distinctive marketing strategy offers exclusive access and perks that aren't typically associated with wireless service.
Exclusive | The U.S. Needs Mechanics and Electricians. Big Business Is Spending to Create Some.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is launching a new $90 million program that includes a partnership with Ford, which is contending with a shortage of mechanics at its dealerships.
Oakland Athletics Announces Multi-Year Partnership with Adidas and BSN Sports
ROCHESTER, Mich. – Oakland University Athletics has officially signed a multi-year contract with adidas, with BSN SPORTS positioned as the exclusive supplier of uniforms, apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment for all 18 Golden Grizzly varsity programs through the assistance of College Sports Solutions.
‘Regular Communication Has Helped’ Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump ‘Cope’ amid Their Health Struggles (Exclusive Source)
Tiger Woods, 50, and Vanessa Trump, 48, are leaning on each other for support as they overcome their own health challenges together, PEOPLE has exclusively learned.
'Lioness' season 3 first look: Zoe Saldaña teases Joe's 'demanding' new mission (exclusive)
In the exclusive first look at the highly anticipated return of 'Lioness,' Zoe Saldaña previews the 'demanding' new season: 'I didn't even know if I was gonna be able to pull it off.'
The Business School At The Intersection Of AI & China
P&Q's exclusive interview with HKUST Business School's new dean, a Belgian psychologist who has led schools on 3 continents.
Exclusive: South Korea labour minister calls on tech firms to share excess AI profits with suppliers, staff
South Korea's labour minister called on the country's major tech firms to share the spoils of their massive windfall profits, warning that unprecedented chip-sector gains stemming from the AI boom risked widening a gap in inequality.
Xbox CEO doubles down on exclusives, saying they remain central to defining the Xbox platform
Asha Sharma doubles down on exclusives, saying they remain central to defining the Xbox platform even as Xbox expands to more devices and services.
Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns storms out of meeting after discussion of Henry Nowak murder
Exclusive: Greater Lincolnshire mayor walks out on cabinet minister after row over social media role in community tensions
Cole Hauser Says 106-Degree Texas Heat Made It Tough to Keep Weight on While Filming “Dutton Ranch” (Exclusive)
"I was trying to keep weight on," Hauser tells PEOPLE of filming the 'Yellowstone' spinoff in Texas
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Dems face major defeat after party ‘missed the cue’ in top targeted district: candidate
Republican Eric Flores says Democrats have missed the cue with Hispanic voters in Texas District 34, citing faith, family values, and cost of living.
3 Investment Trends Shaping Behavioral Health Deals in 2026
This is an exclusive BHB+ article. Despite some major deals in the behavioral health sector in 2026, the year’s dealmaking outlook is still somewhat muted
Control Resonant Early Access Is Exclusive To PS5, Even Though It Costs The Same On Xbox
That face says it all
Control Resonant Early Access Is Exclusive To PS5, But At Least We Get 'Play Anywhere' On Xbox
A worthy trade-off?
How 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' season 2 delivers Toph and 'Fire Nation succession' (exclusive)
On set for 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' season 2 as the cast and crew preview what's to come (and look ahead to season 3).
Inside Caleb Williams' EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27 cover shoot
Bears content presenter Jasmine Baker gives fans an exclusive look at quarterback Caleb Williams' cover shoot for EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27 in Los Angeles.
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
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