Michael Pollan
15 statements across 1 episodes · 4 bullish · 6 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Feb 25, 2026 by Michael Pollan · said 2 times in 1 episodes since 2026 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Michael Pollan's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
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Everything said about Michael Pollan, oldest first
Feb 25, 2026 negative
Feb 25, 2026 positive
Pollan: Conscious AI experiments will illuminate human consciousness regardless of success
“And this effort to build a conscious AI is probably one of the most promising, ah, intellectual experiments to help us understand it. Whether it succeeds or fails, I think it's going to teach us something really important.”
Feb 25, 2026 negative
Pollan: Historical compromise left modern science ill-equipped to study subjectivity
“And now we'll take everything measurable and quantifiable. And the church, you can have everything subjective and qualitative. That was Galileo's deal and Descartes to some extent. And it was a very pragmatic deal, but it's left us with a science that's ill-eq…”
Feb 25, 2026 positive
Feb 25, 2026 negative
Feb 25, 2026 neutral
Pollan: Consciousness discussions often mask a desire for an immortal soul
“I think that there is some wish fulfillment that we have something that is immaterial that therefore might survive the mortal body. I think behind a lot of people's talk about consciousness is the word soul, even though it's not articulated, but what is the so…”
Feb 25, 2026 positive
Feb 25, 2026 bearish
Pollan: Humans will not grant conscious AI moral consideration
“The idea we're automatically going to treat them with all this moral consideration because they're conscious. That seems given the fact we continue to eat animals. We know we full well know our conscious. I don't know that we're quite as enlightened as that co…”
Feb 25, 2026
Pollan: Brain Hardware and Software Are Indistinguishable Unlike in Computers
“In computers, you can run the same software on any number of different hardwares. But in brains, hardware and software are absolutely indistinguishable. Every experience, every memory is a physical set of connections in the brain.”
Feb 25, 2026 neutral
Pollan: Complex Social Interactions Cannot Be Mechanically Automated Without Consciousness
“I also think consciousness is really helpful in a social situation. When you're dealing with a world that is fundamentally unpredictable. That is to say what other people are going to do at any given time, what other people are going to say at any given time. …”
Feb 25, 2026 negative
Feb 25, 2026 positive
Pollan: Reducing egotism through psychedelics, art, or awe unlocks spiritual experience
“The tension in my mind is between spirituality and egotism. And to the extent you can reduce egotism, whether through psychedelics, but also experiences of art, experiences of awe, all of which kind of shrink the eye in a way that can be feel really good that …”
Feb 25, 2026 negative
Pollan: Chatbots Strip Away the Subtleties of Real Human Conversation
“When you have a conversation with a bot or a computer in general, you are reducing or simplifying your notion of what a conversation is. You're leaving out what's going on between us right now, which is acknowledgement, Skepticism, body language all the subtle…”
Feb 25, 2026 neutral
Pollan: Scientific physicalism has failed to explain consciousness
“You know, people have been trying to do what has worked everywhere else in science, which is reduce phenomenon to mass, you know, to matter and energy. And it's been an incredibly productive strategy, but it doesn't seem to work
Yet with consciousness and that…”
Feb 25, 2026 neutral
Pollan: Human claims to unique intelligence and culture are falling apart
“Our definition of the human, what's special about us, which has always been related to our intelligence and consciousness, is under enormous pressure today from these thinking machines and possibly feeling machines, and then from all these animals that we're l…”