A World Appears: The Consciousness
Join us as we explore one of the greatest mysteries in science and philosophy: how a particular piece of biological tissue generates the feeling of being alive. Based on Michael Pollan's book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, this podcast takes you on a deep dive into the elusive "hard problem" of our minds and the world that magically emerges the moment we open our eyes.
Across our episodes, we will unpack the four dimensions of consciousness:
- Sentience: We challenge the assumption that brains are required for awareness, exploring the surprising science of plant intelligence, root "brains," and basal cognition to see if sentience extends all the way down the evolutionary tree of life.
- Feeling: Discover why many scientists now argue that consciousness begins in the upper brainstem with primitive, body-based feelings designed to maintain homeostasis and keep us alive. We also dive into the controversial tech world to ask if we can—or should—engineer artificial consciousness and vulnerable "feeling machines".
- Thought: What actually goes on in your stream of consciousness? We look at spontaneous thought, daydreaming, and the psychological methods used to capture the shockingly elusive, and sometimes entirely wordless, nature of our inner lives.
- Self: Who is the "I" experiencing the world? From the neuroscience of predictive processing—which views the self as a "controlled hallucination" generated by the brain to stay alive—to the ego-dissolving effects of psychedelics and Zen Buddhist meditation, we explore why the self is a useful fiction and the profound relief that can come from transcending it.
Tune in as we navigate the limits of reductive, materialist science, the philosophical blind spots of modern AI, and the awe-inspiring realization that consciousness and sentience might be woven into the very fabric of life itself
