‘Our consciousness is under siege’: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom

Interview ‘Our consciousness is under siege’: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom Shayla Love In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need ‘consciousness hygiene’ to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms E ach day when you wake up, you come back to yourself. You see the room around you, feel your body brush against your clothes and think about your plans, worries and hopes for the day. This daily internal experience is miraculous and mysterious, and the subject of Michael Pollan’s new book, A World Appears . It also may be under siege, Pollan said. He recently suggested that people need a “consciousness hygiene” to defend our internal world against invaders that are trying to move in. Our ability to sit with our thoughts and perceive the world, he argues, is increasingly disrupted by algorithms engineered to tickle our dopamine receptors and capture our attention. Meanwhile, people are forming attachments to non-human chatbots, projecting consciousness on to entities that do not possess it. I spoke with Pollan over the phone about what consciousness hygiene looks like in practice. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You have said that consciousness is a “precious realm” and that we should adopt a “consciousness hygiene ”. That idea is intriguing – can you first tell me what we’re developing a hygiene around? In this case, I’m referring specifically to human consciousness – this private space of interiority where we enjoy a very high degree of mental freedom. It’s the space in which we daydream, mind wander, talk to ourselves, and it is this very precious thing. In the course of writing the book, I realized that our consciousness is under siege, and that it’s being polluted by several different things. What things? One is our president, who manages to dominate our headspace to a remarkable degree. I don’t remember another time when politics and the actions and expressions of one person got ...