Pollan Argues AI Cannot Reproduce Human Consciousness

Michael Pollan's new book A World Appears examines consciousness and challenges claims that artificial intelligence will soon replicate it. Surveying at least 106 competing hypotheses—including 22 physicalist and 84 non-physicalist theories—Pollan emphasizes feeling and subjective experience as central, arguing current AI systems, including language models, fall short and that this gap reshapes technological and cultural debates about meaning and work.