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What are your all time favorite Russell Wilson plays?
Reminisce about the good Russell Wilson days!
I gave my daughter a "Yes Day" for her birthday
I let my daughter lead for a day on her birthday and learned kids want time, attention, and trust.
Spencer Pratt's Race for Mayor Shows How Climate Disasters Can Fuel Anti-Establishment Politics
Research has long shown that poorly managed disasters foment distrust in institutions.
Justice Department rushes to defense of Chicago US attorney after weeks of turmoil
After two weeks of turmoil at the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois, the acting attorney general has jumped in to publicly defend his leader on the ground in Chicago, Andrew Boutros.
Borussia Dortmund president expects Erling Haaland to join Real Madrid
As part of his Real Madrid presidency push, Enrique Riquelme claimed that he will bring Jurgen Klopp and Erling Haaland to the Bernabeu. However, the representatives of both have already dismissed the...
America In Focus: US job market is rebounding, but economic frustration persists
U.S. employers added a surprising 172,000 jobs in May as the labor market continued to show resilience in the face of rising costs from the Iran war.
Vulnerable Republicans increasingly willing to defy Trump’s agenda as midterms approach
President Donald Trump remains the clear leader of the Republican party. Yet his grip is weakening among Republicans on Capitol Hill who’ve grown frustrated by what they view as increasingly brazen decisions in his second term.
Jill Biden’s book tour reopens wounds, sparks Biden-world infighting
The former first lady’s memoir has made some Democrats frustrated at relitigating the 2024 presidential election and her treatment of a once loyal White House aide.
Kosovo to hold third election in 18 months as frustration grows over political impasse
Voters in Kosovo are heading to the polls this weekend for the third time in 18 months
Not worth the wait; Royals fall to Twins
Another frustrating loss chock full of missed scoring opportunities.
Jays Crushed By Orioles
Orioles A Lot Blue. Jays A little. That was less than fun. Everything that mattered happened in the bottom of the fifth and the top of the sixth. The Jays scored two in the top of the fifth. With two out George Springer reached on catcher interference, yet again. They are going to name catcher […]
Graham Platner says his past has been ‘weaponized’ at rally in Maine
Supporters brush off negative stories about the Democratic Senate candidate and rebut suggestions that he is the wrong person to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
Notre Dame 2026 Player Profile: Defensive End Keon Keeley
After a detour through Alabama, the former elite recruit Keon Keeley finally arrives at Notre Dame. Can the powerful edge rusher refine his raw technique to anchor the Irish defense?
2027 NFL Draft Summer Scouting Report: Elijah Rushing, edge, Oregon
Elijah Rushing arrived at Oregon as one of the nation's top recruits, but less than 100 defensive snaps have left evaluators searching for answers.
Mike Green reveals why he switched back to No. 15
Ravens pass rusher Mike Green explains why returning to his college jersey number 15 is vital for his identity.
Chicago businesses 'hurt' and concerned over Bears plan to move ahead with Hammond stadium
Community group Near South Planning Board said the team's move out of Soldier Field will result in potential economic losses for Chicago, from less tourism and visitor spending to fewer jobs.
Liberty finding their stride with test from Fever next
The New York Liberty have brushed off three consecutive losses by securing their first three-game winning streak under new head coach Chris DeMarco.
Platner ex-girlfriend blasts New York Times story detailing alleged abuse
Lyndsey Fifield said the Times twisted her accounts and betrayed her trust in the paper.
Cobolli through to final as Arnaldi withdraws with virus
Flavio Cobolli is through to the French Open final as Matteo Arnaldi withdraws before their semi-final with a virus.
The NFL's edge rusher market has exploded. What does it mean for the Steelers and T.J. Watt?
To pay or not to pay? That is the question NFL teams are facing with the league’s top edge rushers. In recent years, no market has exploded in the...
One Health in a Fractured World: Why Global Health Governance Must Adapt to Geopolitical Fragmentation - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Introduction In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the weaknesses of global health systems to infectious diseases. However, less recognized was how the emergence of this novel virus highlighted the global changes converging to heighten outbreak risks: increased human-animal contact and agricultural intensification, accelerated population growth and urbanization, and changing weather and climatic patterns. These […]
Democrats are increasingly frustrated with Graham Platner in Maine Senate race
The Maine race is considered crucial to Democrats’ hopes of flipping the Senate, but Platner’s web of controversies is overshadowing other issues.
E-bike safety; lung cancer treatment and prevention; keeping CMA Festival attendees safe; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources
WKRN News 2 interviewed Jeffrey Upperman, MD, FACS, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, about e-bike related injuries following the recent death of a Brentwood High student and a proposal to require safety training before students could ride a bike on a school campus in Williamson County. Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc,Professor of Medicine and Thoracic Surgery, was on WTVF News Channel 5‘s live studio show, “Openline,” with host Ben Hall, to discuss lung cancer, treatment and prevention. WSMV’s “Today In Nashville” program hosted Vanderbilt LifeFlight paramedic/flight nurse practitioner Tony Smith to talk about safety for the CMA Festival. The New York Times reporter Carl Zimmer interviewed James Crowe, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, for a story about the race to find vaccines and treatments as Ebola spreads. The Vanderbilt Health News release about the pilot clinical trial conducted by Vanderbilt Health and Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc., that confirms the safety of ifetroban and supports the further development of the drug to prevent cancer metastasis, was picked up by Reuters, Stock Titan,and others. Women We Admire has named Lee Ann Liska, President and Chief Operating Officer, to its list of top women leaders of Nashville for 2026. Radiology Business, Aunt Minnie, Bioengineer, and Imaging Technology News covered the study from Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, the Mildred Thornton Stahlman Professor in Rural Health and professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, that found Black and Hispanic people, while known to be far more apt to have dementia, are significantly less apt than other racial and ethnic groups to show Alzheimer’s pathology on brain scans. STAT News interviewed Deva Sharma, MD, Transfusion Medicine & Hematology-Oncology, for a story about more patients requesting unvaccinated blood and what it means for the medical system at large. Yahoo! Health reporter Korin Miller interviewed Gitanjali Srivastava, MD, Director of Obesity Medicine, for a story about how semaglutide and tirzepatide compare. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: NBC News (new COVID vaccinations); Medscape (pneumonia and sepsis); and CNN (protection from contagious viruses). Shelbyville Times-Gazette is repurposing Jessica Pasley’s July 2025 Vanderbilt Health News story on tick-borne illnesses as a front-page story.
AHA, West Health launch learning collaborative on aging care
The AHA is launching a new learning collaborative, Adopting Digital Tools for Better Aging Care, which is part of the West Health Accelerator at AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust.
Louisiana Peach Festival: The Science Guys to be featured in Kids Alley at the 46th Annual LA Peach Festival
RUSTON, La. (KTVE/KARD) — KTVE’s Jayden Maloney joins the Science Guys for an exciting science experiment ahead of their appearance in Kids Alley at the 46th Annual Louisiana Peach Fest…
The Frustrating Fight to Control AIDS
When I first approached the administration of the Fenway Community Health Center in June, 1980 to set up a research program, I was surprised that I was rebu ...
AI-designed universal coronavirus vaccine passes first human trial
Scientists have successfully tested an AI-designed universal coronavirus vaccine in humans for the first time, finding it to be safe and well tolerated. The vaccine generated immune responses against multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS, and related bat viruses with pandemic potential. By targeting features shared across an entire virus family, it aims to provide protection even as viruses evolve.
Memphis business frustrated by stolen AC in summer heat
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — We’re feeling a summer-like heat across the Mid-South. There’s no doubt residents and businesses are turning up the AC to stay cool, but what happens when you go …
Youth mental health system in NJ hurts kids, frustrates parents, study says
Lawmakers proposed fixes to NJ's child mental health system in response to a report saying it frustrates parents, leaves kids waiting for care
Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte: Crushes walk-off homer
Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte: Crushes walk-off homer
LeBron James welcomes new Rams star edge rusher Myles Garrett
LeBron James posted a hearty welcome on social media to new Rams star Myles Garrett.
House passes Ukraine aid, Russia sanctions as GOP bucks Trump on foreign policy
Eighteen Republicans sided with Democrats to authorize billions in aid to Ukraine.
Charlotte Hornets host former top prospect for pre-draft workout
The Charlotte Hornets hosted Koa Peat for a pre-draft workout earlier this week, despite draft boards regarding him as a late first-round pick.
House passes bill to provide more Ukraine aid and impose new sanctions on Russia
The 226-195 vote is a sign of impatience with President Donald Trump's approach to the war and represents the House's second major foreign policy break with Trump this week.
Rams Land Myles Garrett: Should the Lions Make a Move?
After the Rams landed Myles Garrett, the question shifts to Detroit: Should the Lions make a blockbuster move of their own, or trust the roster they've built?
House approves Ukraine aid and Russian sanctions, defying Trump and GOP leaders
More than a dozen GOP lawmakers defied their own leadership — and President Donald Trump — by voting with Democrats to approve a major bill to deliver billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine while imposing steep sanctions on Russia.
Urban Waste Management, Air Quality, and Public Health: Assessing the Health Burden of Rapid Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa
China CDC Weekly, first published in 2019 by China CDC, is an authoritative, trusted resource for public and global health research.
'It’s not acceptable': Lejeune toxic water victims rally outside Capitol
People exposed to toxic water at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune decades ago voiced pent-up frustration outside the U.S. Capitol Thursday.
Dalton Rushing Gets Public Support From Max Muncy Amid Scrutiny
Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing has been in the spotlight for his fiery on-field persona, creating a good deal of headlines.
Scientists Are Taking Improv Classes So People Will Trust Them More
What does it look like when biologists and physicists do comedy? We sat in on a session.
Building Trust in Health Science by Leading with Communities
Amy Gyau-Moyer and Elisabeth Solomon discuss how a NAM action collaborative is co-developing community-driven approaches to improve trust in health science.
Are German businesses returning to Russia's SPIEF meeting?
Russian officials and media claim German businesses are comming back to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum despite the war in Ukrainer. But who is actually attending Russia's flagship event this year?
Greatest QB in Wisconsin Badgers history officially retires from NFL
Arguably the greatest quarterback in Wisconsin Badgers history, Russell Wilson, has announced his NFL retirement.
As the largest World Cup ever kicks off, health officials are focused on more than Ebola
Officials are more concerned about highly contagious diseases like measles and respiratory viruses, which can spread quickly through large, fast-moving crowds.
Travel Health Tips: How to Avoid Getting Sick
Learn how to prevent illness while traveling, including cruise and flight tips, immune support, and hantavirus safety tips from health experts.
Ex-New York Giants QB Russell Wilson announces retirement from NFL
Former New York Giants QB Russell Wilson has officially announced his retirement from the NFL.
Max Verstappen Demands a “New Back” As Red Bull’s Brutal RB22 Suspension Setup Threatens Monaco Disaster
Max Verstappen isn’t mincing words about the brutal physical and mechanical toll the 2026 Red Bull RB22 is taking on his body. As Formula 1 heads into the tight, unforgiving streets of the Monaco Grand Prix, the world champion’s frustrations…
Opinion | Alleged fraud by United Healthcare undermines trust in health system
Insurer accused of making patients appear sicker to inflate payments.
Skokie trustees raise entertainment tax, apply it to Netflix and other streaming services
It’s about to become slightly more expensive to stream television and music in Skokie. The Skokie Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Monday to raise the village’s Amusement Tax and expand its scope to apply to any “video streaming, audio streaming, or remotely accessed online games” that residents use on a rental or subscription basis, […]
How Ukraine-Russia tension hangs over French Open semi-finals
Russia's war in Ukraine will provide an unavoidable backdrop to the French Open women's semi-finals - and possibly the final.
Putin Turns Russia’s AI Future Into a Kremlin Family Business
President Vladimir Putin’s push for what he calls Russia’s technological sovereignty is turning into a family affair with the development of key sectors entrusted to one of his daughters and the children of close allies.
Packers: Why Josh Sweat Trade Can’t Be Ruled Out
The Green Bay Packers do have reasons to trade for Arizona Cardinals pass-rusher Josh Sweat this offseason.
People with disabilities often experience poorer oral health—training could drive improved care
People with disabilities continue to face major barriers when seeking oral health care, according to new research that explores the perspectives of patients, caregivers and health care professionals in ...
Florida Educator Health Trust adds 4 districts, expands to nearly 65,000 employees
Four districts join FLEHT, expanding statewide educator health coverage.
WHO Health Emergencies EPI-WIN webinar: Hantavirus in focus III: reflections from a Border Health and Point of Entry perspective
The complex multi-country response to the hantavirus outbreak linked to cruise ship travel is an unprecedented test of the global border health system. This EPI‑WIN webinar will provide an opportunity to hear from key border health stakeholders on their involvement in and initial reflections about this particular multi-country response, as well as their routine collaborative work for the management of public health events across borders, at points of entry, and onboard conveyances.
After 14 NFL seasons, Russell Wilson enters a sports TV role
Russell Wilson is heading to television after 14 seasons. The 10-time Pro Bowl quarterback announced Wednesday that he is joining CBS Sports.
Russell Wilson announces move to CBS Sports in apparent retirement video
Parking prices, Costco ‘waiver’ fuel frustration among Fresno's downtown entrepreneurs
Downtown Fresno business owners are voicing frustration over rising parking costs, ongoing construction disruptions and what some describe as a lack of support for local entrepreneurs. The concerns came to a head May 7 when
U.S. Congressman tells Endeavor Health to stop retaliating against unionizing nurses
Democratic Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is calling on Endeavor to reinstate two nurses who were allegedly fired from Evanston Hospital and to respect workers rights to organize.
U.S. Congressman tells Endeavor Health to stop retaliating against unionizing nurses
Democratic Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is calling on Endeavor to reinstate two nurses who were allegedly fired from Evanston Hospital and to respect workers rights to organize.
Republicans defy Johnson to advance Democrat-backed Ukraine aid
House Democrats scored a rare win as lawmakers voted to advance a bipartisan Ukraine aid package with new military assistance and Russia sanctions.
Google wants to release 64 million bacteria-riddled mosquitoes across California and Florida. Here’s why scientists are enthusiastic.
Google has applied for an experimental mosquito release permit to deploy millions of non-biting southern house mosquitoes that it has infected with the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, in an effort to reduce mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus.
Micah Parsons says he has 4 months left in ACL recovery; Packers pass rusher on track for October return
Alsobrooks, public health advocates warn of a 'leadership vacuum' at HHS under RFK Jr.
US Sen. Angela Alsobrooks calls again for removal of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as deadly outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola pose international public health threats
Lilly, BioNTech Warn German Health Reforms Could Hurt Investment
Eli Lilly & Co. and BioNTech SE joined a growing chorus of drugmakers warning that proposed healthcare reforms in Germany risk undermining investment the country.
West Nile virus detected in south central Ottawa County, health officials confirm
West Nile virus has been detected in Ottawa County.
Report: Cardinals will not trade Josh Sweat
Speculation about edge rusher Josh Sweat's future with the Cardinals has picked up over the course of his absence from the team's offseason program, but a report on Wednesday tosses some cold water on thoughts of a trade.
Judge with intimate ties to Dem Party's key Russia Hoax players behind latest anti-Trump decision
Trump accuses Obama-appointed Judge Cooper of conflict of interest over Kennedy Center ruling, citing wife Amy Jeffress' work for Biden and Democrats.
Michael Ferguson reports $100K raised, 4K doors knocked in HD 100 bid
‘The message we're hearing is clear: people are frustrated.’
Kelp-powered planes, super El Niño and the science of sunburn
In this news roundup: climate crisis fuels hantavirus spread, extreme heat kills 3,400 Indians per day and countries endorse ICJ opinion
Cowboys Headlines: Trade with Steelers a possibility? Edge rusher news
The latest Cowboys news and news around the NFL.
Curbing Congo’s Ebola outbreak is hampered by unknowns about the virus
Answers to key questions could help public health officials develop Ebola treatments, predict the outbreak’s trajectory and prevent a future one.
SFA business students gain global edge through immersive study abroad tour of Spain and Portugal
NACOGDOCHES, Texas –– Nearly 50 students from Stephen F. Austin State University’s Nelson Rusche College of Business participated in an intensive, faculty-led study abroad program in Spain and Portugal May 10-21.Led by Dr. Matthew Lindsey, chair of the Department of Management and Marketing, and Dr. Mikhail Kouliavtsev, chair of the Department of Economics and Finance, the experiential learning trip bridged classroom business theory with real-world international operations across the Iberian Peninsula.
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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