Pollan: Historical compromise left modern science ill-equipped to study subjectivity
Michael Pollan · Can AI Become Conscious? — With Michael Pollan · Feb 25, 2026 · at 44:34
Michael Pollan explains why modern science historically avoided investigating consciousness, ceding the study of subjective lived experience to religion.
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“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-equipped to study what they left by the roadside, which is to say subjectivity.”
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