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World Cup visitor surge raises risk of flu and measles spread, health experts warn
As Seattle prepares to host an influx of visitors for the FIFA World Cup, local health officials and infectious disease experts say they are ready.
World Cup visitor surge raises risk of flu and measles spread, health experts warn
As Seattle prepares to host an influx of visitors for the FIFA World Cup, local health officials and infectious disease experts say they are ready.
Pro-Israel Group Pushes for Haley Stevens in Michigan Senate Race
The main super PAC tied to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee released its first ads backing Ms. Stevens, a moderate congresswoman locked in a tight three-way primary.
K-Pop Powerhouse SM Entertainment Elevates Global Hitmaking With Solid State Logic ORACLE
Seoul, South Korea, June 9, 2026 — SM Entertainment, the multinational record label, talent agency, production company and music publisher that pioneered the introduction of Korean music artists to | From shaping the sound of modern K-pop to scaling world-class production, SM adopts ORACLE to supercharge workflow, streamline sessions, and deliver signature SSL analogue excellence.
Why Packers’ Jordan Love ‘needs’ a Super Bowl in 2026
The concept is a simple one for the Packers, and 31 other teams across the NFL, of course each franchise is chasing a Super Bowl ring in 2026. Green Bay, by virtue of having a still ascending franchise quarterback at the helm, boasting one of the truly elite and most disruptive edge rushers in the [...]
2026 and beyond
We were traveling through southern Missouri last week. Interesting country. Super nice people. Love the scenery. On highway 160, we drove past what appeared to be an old salvage yard and on the chain link fence was a sign that said: Business closed Do not enter Dog will bite I loved the simplicity of that […]
Ranking the 15 NFL quarterbacks who most need a Super Bowl win for their legacy
Ranking 15 quarterbacks that need to win the Super Bowl to define their legacy in the NFL.
Marvel Rivals - The Super Hero Team-based PVP Shooter
Play for free Now!! Get ready to Ignite the Battle with Marvel Rivals!
NC expands specialized mental health supervision to all 100 counties
Specialty Mental Health Supervision program uses specially trained officers to help people with serious mental illness access treatment and reduce justice system involvement.
Big spending by Super PACs in congressional primaries
Millions of dollars have already been spent by outside groups known as Super PACs to try to sway voters in the upcoming congressional primaries
How Banks Are Using the SpaceX IPO to Woo the Super Rich
Wall Street is giving its richest clients velvet rope access to this week’s public listing of SpaceX, reflecting the growing importance of the wealth management business.
Rob Sand picks western Iowa county supervisor as running mate
Rob Sand's pick for lieutenant governor is Crawford County Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer, a native Iowan and fifth-generation family farmer.
ORNL scientist: How AI helps scientists predict Earth's future
Oak Ridge scientist Forrest Hoffman explains how AI and supercomputers help predict Earth's complex climate systems.
Will Campbell: I'm 22 years old, so I'm a long way from where I'm going to be
Patriots left tackle Will Campbell had an up-and-down rookie season in 2025, and it ended on a down note when he struggled mightily in New England's Super Bowl loss.
Collaborative research by FSU physicists uncovers novel electronic properties in quantum material
Florida State University physicists are part of a team that has discovered unusual superconducting states in parts of graphene, with the potential to
Scientists Reveal the Terrifying Truth Behind Earth’s Most Powerful Eruption - Futura-Sciences
Scientists Raise the Alarm This time, the University of Oxford has taken on the task, announcing that super volcanic eruptions—far more frequent than previously believed—could threaten our entire civilisation. Let’s not beat around the bush, because this is just about the worst natural disaster imaginable. An explosive display of such...
USC's College World Series hopes come to an end
Just two outs away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2001, USC suffered a devastating 4-3 loss.
Citigroup lifts S&P 500 year-end target to 8,100 on earnings strength, AI 'supercycle'
Citigroup became the latest Wall Street brokerage to raise its 2026-end target for the S&P 500 index beyond the 8,000 mark, citing resilience in corporate earnings and AI-driven growth.
Why this Savannah music store has thrived for 90 years
From electric guitars to school rentals see how Savannah staple Portman's Music Superstore has thrived for 90 years.
New documentary made in SC will tell the story of a Super Bowl-winning team
A new documentary shot in the Upstate will tell the story of a Super Bowl-winning team and its on-field triumphs — as well as the often-untold stories of struggle, deep
Out-of-contract Devlin expresses 'love' of Hearts
Cammy Devlin has stated "I absolutely love Hearts" as the Australia midfielder continues to ponder whether to extend his stay at Tynecastle. The 28-year-old, who was a late substitute in his country's 1-1 draw with Switzerland in their final pre-World Cup friendly on Sunday, is out of contract after five years with the Scottish Premiership club. Amid reports that Devlin has offers from clubs in Major League Soccer, the Turkish Super Lig and English Championship, he described Hearts as "an amazing football club" in an interview with Football360.
LeBron James’ golf game achievement draws attention
LeBron James has been playing more and more golf in the past few months. With the Los Angeles Lakers losing in the second round of the 2026 NBA playoffs , it has given the superstar forward extra time to work…
1974 Film Named 'Funniest Movie of All Time' by Fans - And You Can Watch it Free
The competition for funniest movie of all time is fierce, with the likes of Airplane!, Superbad and Dumb and Dumber in the running. Comedy geniuses like Will Farrell and Chevy Chase have delivered cou...
Superlatives: Daily Bruin Sports spotlights UCLA’s standout 2025-26 athletes
As the 2025-26 academic year comes to a close, so does another UCLA Athletics chapter. The past year was filled with standout plays, broken records and national championships.
Tar Heels defeat USC 4-3 with ninth-inning rally, heading to College World Series
The North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team defeated the USC Trojans 4-3 on Sunday in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, giving the Tar Heels their 13th appearance in the College World Series.
DTLA residents and businesses say surge in graffiti is hurting city's image
With the World Cup, Super Bowl and Olympics approaching, some people who work and live in downtown Los Angeles say graffiti has become so widespread that they fear it's damaging the city's image as it prepares to host millions of visitors.
Broncos Join Rams, Seahawks On Fox Sports' List Of Super Bowl Frontrunners For 2026
Armed with a healthy Bo Nix and star receiver Jaylen Waddle, the Denver Broncos could very well be the team to beat in the AFC this season.
5 people injured at West Virginia NCAA super regionals game due to high winds and severe thunderstorms
"Unfinished Business" | Dayton Tockey's Mom Talks Sooners' Omaha Dream
After Dayton Tockey's dramatic game-winning home run helped send Oklahoma to the Super Regionals, his mother, Kristi Gilpin, sat down with Evan Kamikow to discuss the unforgettable moment, the emotional roller coaster of the season, and the Sooners' quest for Omaha.
"Unfinished Business" | Dayton Tockey's Mom Talks Sooners' Omaha Dream
After Dayton Tockey's dramatic game-winning home run helped send Oklahoma to the Super Regionals, his mother, Kristi Gilpin, sat down with Evan Kamikow to discuss the unforgettable moment, the emotional roller coaster of the season, and the Sooners' quest for Omaha.
OpenAI plans ChatGPT 'superapp' overhaul ahead of listing, FT reports
OpenAI is planning its biggest ChatGPT overhaul yet, aiming to turn it into a "superapp" with coding tools and AI agents to boost revenue ahead of a planned share listing, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Fans injured as storm hits West Virginia Super Regional game
Several fans at West Virginia's Super Regional game were injured Saturday when heavy winds blew over an event tent next to Kendrick Family Ballpark, the university said.
Fans injured at WVU baseball game after heavy winds blow over event tent
Multiple fans at Saturday's West Virginia vs. Cal Poly NCAA baseball super regional were injured after heavy winds blew over an event tent.
Backfire News Weekly Recap: June 4–6, 2026
It was a packed week on Backfire News, with coverage spanning Formula 1, NASCAR history, truck culture, collector cars, and a few somber losses across the racing world. Thirteen posts went live between June 4 and June 6, 2026. Here is the full rundown. Formula 1 in the Spotlight F1 dominated the week. A feature on the Monaco Grand Prix experience explored why the street circuit remains the sport's most iconic and unusual weekend, while a look at a $75 million superyacht captured the glamour that
'Buffy' star Alyson Hannigan mourns the death of Anthony Head: 'This cut is so deep I fear it can never heal'
'Buffy' star Alyson Hannigan mourned the death of her costar Anthony Head, who played Rupert Giles on the supernatural series.
Sports star meet-and-greets headline Dad’s Day Block Party
Visitors participated in mini golf, photo booth activities and superhero-themed cape and mask stations.
Dodgers' Dave Roberts Downplays Shohei Ohtani’s Right Blister Concern
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani dominated Arizona Diamondbacks despite pitching through a persistent right blister issue.
Trained in fierce local politics, SF women lead statewide contests
Former supervisors Fiona Ma, Jane Kim, and Malia Cohen and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis are front-runners in their state races.
Yooka-Laylee is back in a SNES-style kart racer from some of the team behind Diddy Kong Racing
Playtonic's acclaimed platform series is swapping feet for wheels, with multiplayer beta tests promised ahead of launch.
Can Matthew Stafford win without a ‘super team’?
How Rams’ recent additions could become a criticism of Matthew Stafford’s career
Ole Miss vs. Auburn baseball box score: Live stats from NCAA Baseball Championship Game
The Rebels and Tigers battle in the Auburn Super Regional.
Hands On: "We Want It To Feel Like A Fighting Game" - Super Yooka-Laylee Kart Offers More Depth Than You Think
We've played Playtonic's new kart racer, and here's why you should be excited
Super Yooka-Laylee Kart announced for PC
Publisher Playtonic Friends and developer Playtonic Games have announced Super Yooka-Laylee Kart for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced. A series of multiplayer-focused beta tests are pla…
Super Yooka-Laylee Kart announced, first details and trailer
Playtonic just unveiled its next game, which is Super Yooka-Laylee Kart. The company says it’s planning the game for PC with other platforms to follow – we’d be shocked if Nintendo Switch 2 / Switch isn’t a part of the plan. Playtonic did tell us: “we absolutely love the Nintendo Switch and are die-hard Nintendo fans ourselves, so stay tuned...
Microsoft AI chief says company was “set free” from OpenAI to pursue superintelligence
Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says the company was “set free” from OpenAI as it unveils seven in-house models and pursues superintelligence.
SEC's Sankey: Idea of super league 'not consistent with truth'
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey called the notion that the conference wants to form a super league with the Big Ten "not consistent with the truth."
Control Resonant Deals With Trauma And Redemption
If you watch the latest Control Resonant gameplay footage, you’ll see a game that takes the fascinating supernatural world of Control and melds it with the exhilarating and fast-paced melee combat of a character-action game. It’s new territory for Remedy Entertainment, a studio that has primarily made games where protagonists shoot guns, but that genre...
Hidden supermassive black hole pairs may finally have a visible signal
Scientists have proposed a new method for finding tightly bound supermassive black hole pairs by searching for stars that flash repeatedly as their light is magnified by the black holes’ gravity. The timing and brightness of these bursts could provide a unique fingerprint of black holes slowly spiraling toward a future collision.
AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE review: Shrinkflation isn't just for groceries anymore
The superior RX 9070 also launched for $549 just over a year ago.
The strange history of baseball’s superstitions: ‘Magic is in the sport’s very structure’
A new book looks at how rituals, charms and curses are central to the identity of America’s pastime
Five players who could be Perez’s secret ‘superstar’ signing
Last night, Florentino Perez dropped a bomb that has sent waves through the football community and seemingly could be enough to see him win the upcoming presidential election.Despite stating that he w...
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 SUPER is 'back on track', RTX 5060 12GB reportedly planned
NVIDIA RTX 50 SUPER refresh reportedly returns to active plans MEGAsizeGPU says RTX 5070 SUPER and RTX 5080 SUPER specs remain unchanged. According to
Who is cutting $1 million-plus checks to MAGA Inc. and what do they want?
The evidence is circumstantial, but the list is long. Supporters who have business with the federal government clearly see utility in contributing large amounts to President Donald Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc.
Tide Statistics Entering Super Regional Play
The stat bro’s don’t love this team, but Al Davis would, “Just win baby!”
Santa Clara County businesses eye World Cup boost after Super Bowl brings in $195M
A massive wave of economic revenue poured into the Bay Area during Super Bowl week, signaling a major financial victory for local economies as the region prepares for its next giant sporting event.
Caitlin Clark’s sidestep triple vs. Dream is a must-see
Caitlin Clark continues to amaze WNBA fans with her smooth moves on the court. The Indiana Fever superstar once again showcased her elite skill set in the third quarter against the Atlanta Dream on Thursday. She brought the ball toward…
What is El Niño and how could it affect weather this year?
A strong El Niño this year, colloquially dubbed a super El Niño, could lead to extreme weather events — from heavy rainfall to exacerbated droughts.
Seahawks still considered frontrunners to win Super Bowl LXI
The Seahawks were named by Fox Sports as one of three teams that have the best chance to win the Super Bowl next season.
Madden 27's Tush Push tease highlights everything wrong with annually released sports games
Madden 27 tease reveals the Tush Push as a new feature, but is that really enough to justify spending $60 or $70 on this year's edition of the game?
Scott Forbes names game one starter for super regional
UNC baseball manager Scott Forbes has named Ryan Lynch the game one starter vs. USC.
Fitbit Air Can Turn Into a Watch and the Trick is Super Easy
When we talk about devices like the new Fitbit Air having their momentt, we can't do so without mentioning the fact that it doesn't have a screen. This is a fitness and health tracker that is...
Ferrari unveils supercar-informed laptop that "transcends traditional boundaries of PC design"
Car brand Ferrari and technology brand HP have collaborated to design a laptop informed by the aesthetics and engineering of supercars.
USA TODAY Sports crowns Super 25 girls flag football national champ
A Florida girls flag football powerhouse finishes at No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports Super 25, earning its first national championship.
A question looms over Iran diplomacy: Is Trump being straight with the American people?
President Donald Trump’s ability to shock and outrage Washington elites is a superpower when it comes to solidifying his political base.
UNC vs. USC: Biggest strengths, weaknesses and players to watch
The Diamond Heels host USC in a best-of-three super regional with a trip to Omaha on the line. Here are USC’s players to watch and key strengths.
Scientists Say Supermassive Black Holes Could Be Surrounded by Millions of Planets
Scientists have found planet and star formations somewhere that was the last place they thought it could occur.
Monetary compensation becomes key sticking point in Iran deal as Trump bristles at comparison to Obama agreement
One of the key sticking points remaining in negotiations between the US and Iran centers on monetary compensation, as President Donald Trump is eager to strike a deal that will be viewed as superior to a prior agreement inked during the Obama administration, a US official familiar with the talks told CNN.
'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' Remains Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through June 3
Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie remained No. 1 on the weekly Official Film Chart — the U.K. home entertainment sales chart — through June 3 due to digital transactions. Amazon MGM Studios’ former chart topper Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling as a lone astronaut on a mission to save humanity, remained at No. … Continue reading "‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Remains Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through June 3"
Kelp-powered planes, super El Niño and the science of sunburn
In this news roundup: climate crisis fuels hantavirus spread, extreme heat kills 3,400 Indians per day and countries endorse ICJ opinion
Milwaukee shouldn’t trade Giannis Antetokounmpo for one major reason
With constant trade talks swirling around superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, this could be the summer a blockbuster deal finally happens. The Bucks’ owner has made comments about wanting to make a move before the NBA Draft to acquire assets, and looking…
Riverhead Votes to Proceed with Science Center Condemnation
In a 3-1 vote Tuesday afternoon (Councilman Bob Kern abstained), the Riverhead Town Board voted to proceed with condemnation proceedings against a building owned by the Long Island Science Center adjacent to the planned Town Square on East Main Street. Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin cast the sole vote in opposition. Pictured Above: Cindy Clifford, Joan
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
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