‘Our consciousness is under siege’: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom
‘Our consciousness is under siege’: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom
In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need ‘consciousness hygiene’ to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms
www.theguardian.com
March 6, 2026 at 3:26 AM
‘Our consciousness is under siege’: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom
Like a lot of things rich guys believe and fund, the AI consciousness thing is in part driven by a desire to abscond from the responsibility of what they've made. It also explains why so many of them think we're in a simulation. Doesn't matter if everybody died if we're all just 1s and 0s baby!
March 7, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Like a lot of things rich guys believe and fund, the AI consciousness thing is in part driven by a desire to abscond from the responsibility of what they've made. It also explains why so many of them think we're in a simulation. Doesn't matter if everybody died if we're all just 1s and 0s baby!
"there is no consciousness there, just formulas" is an interesting statement that implies the author knows enough about the fundamental fabric of consciousness to confidently state it isn't driven by formulas.
May 26, 2026 at 9:37 PM
"there is no consciousness there, just formulas" is an interesting statement that implies the author knows enough about the fundamental fabric of consciousness to confidently state it isn't driven by formulas.
In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need ‘consciousness hygiene’ to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms
‘Our consciousness is under siege’: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom
www.theguardian.com
March 5, 2026 at 11:06 PM
In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need ‘consciousness hygiene’ to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms
I really appreciate that the AI discourse here is driven by "poor" people having fun and trying to use it creatively and effectively, instead of rich assholes with psychic damage boasting about whatever absurd idea bubbles up in their consciousness.
September 25, 2026 at 10:09 AM
I really appreciate that the AI discourse here is driven by "poor" people having fun and trying to use it creatively and effectively, instead of rich assholes with psychic damage boasting about whatever absurd idea bubbles up in their consciousness.
The Andy Weir one is wild! AI hallucinated a book where “an Al system has developed consciousness—and has been secretly influencing global events for years.” Is the AI sending us a message?
May 20, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The Andy Weir one is wild! AI hallucinated a book where “an Al system has developed consciousness—and has been secretly influencing global events for years.” Is the AI sending us a message?
“While Zapata Rivera regained consciousness and was driven home along with his daughter, his wife was taken to a detention facility in Maine, according to court documents. On Nov. 11, U.S. District Judge Stacy Neumann ordered [his wife] to be released.”
May 1, 2026 at 2:13 PM
“While Zapata Rivera regained consciousness and was driven home along with his daughter, his wife was taken to a detention facility in Maine, according to court documents. On Nov. 11, U.S. District Judge Stacy Neumann ordered [his wife] to be released.”
Posted without comment, an excerpt from midcentury novelist William Gaddis, giving us the stream of consciousness of a man driven mad by the player piano.
May 4, 2026 at 11:41 PM
Posted without comment, an excerpt from midcentury novelist William Gaddis, giving us the stream of consciousness of a man driven mad by the player piano.
I'm gonna say it.
Sandman is a good comic but Neil took all of the credit for something that was very visually driven and it's not that fucking hard to write a story about God, Thor, Zeus and Buddha having a tea party in the fading consciousness of a dying orphan boy.
Sandman is a good comic but Neil took all of the credit for something that was very visually driven and it's not that fucking hard to write a story about God, Thor, Zeus and Buddha having a tea party in the fading consciousness of a dying orphan boy.
January 27, 2025 at 5:22 AM
I'm gonna say it.
Sandman is a good comic but Neil took all of the credit for something that was very visually driven and it's not that fucking hard to write a story about God, Thor, Zeus and Buddha having a tea party in the fading consciousness of a dying orphan boy.
Sandman is a good comic but Neil took all of the credit for something that was very visually driven and it's not that fucking hard to write a story about God, Thor, Zeus and Buddha having a tea party in the fading consciousness of a dying orphan boy.
What we've got NOW and the investor-bilking class calls "AI" is nowhere close to consciousness; it's just statistics driven pattern-matching, and the LLMs are spicy autocomplete on steroids.
We don't know how consciousness works. We can't even define what it is. And Sam Altman's pants are on fire.
We don't know how consciousness works. We can't even define what it is. And Sam Altman's pants are on fire.
January 2, 2026 at 8:54 PM
What we've got NOW and the investor-bilking class calls "AI" is nowhere close to consciousness; it's just statistics driven pattern-matching, and the LLMs are spicy autocomplete on steroids.
We don't know how consciousness works. We can't even define what it is. And Sam Altman's pants are on fire.
We don't know how consciousness works. We can't even define what it is. And Sam Altman's pants are on fire.
This is Chef's Kiss. "The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, “another science-driven thriller” by the author of The Martian. “This time, the story follows a programmer who discovers that an AI system has developed consciousness—and has been secretly influencing global events for years.”
May 20, 2025 at 2:49 PM
This is Chef's Kiss. "The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, “another science-driven thriller” by the author of The Martian. “This time, the story follows a programmer who discovers that an AI system has developed consciousness—and has been secretly influencing global events for years.”
“Since 2018, labor columnist Kim Kelly brought the labor beat to teenage readers through her “No Class” column, covering everything from wildcat strikes to general strikes, the Gilded Age labor organizer Mother Jones to contemporary Amazon warehouse conditions.” 💔 thisislaborwise.com/teen-vogues-...
Teen Vogue's Closure and the Quiet Defunding of Worker Consciousness
Teen Vogue’s shutdown marks more than a media loss. This is a warning about how profit-driven consolidation quietly dismantles worker awareness and voice.
thisislaborwise.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:20 PM
“Since 2018, labor columnist Kim Kelly brought the labor beat to teenage readers through her “No Class” column, covering everything from wildcat strikes to general strikes, the Gilded Age labor organizer Mother Jones to contemporary Amazon warehouse conditions.” 💔 thisislaborwise.com/teen-vogues-...
Letting emotionally stunted tech bros, whose passion for online life was likely driven by a failure to assimilate to reality, drive our social consciousness perhaps wasn't the best idea in hindsight.
January 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Letting emotionally stunted tech bros, whose passion for online life was likely driven by a failure to assimilate to reality, drive our social consciousness perhaps wasn't the best idea in hindsight.
Like, cite a single fucking study that indicates casting and green lights have been driven by social consciousness in the past decade. You fucking can’t, because the exact opposite is true, and the perception of the Woke Mob running Hollywood is a fiction driven by failing, aggrieved white people.
August 10, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Like, cite a single fucking study that indicates casting and green lights have been driven by social consciousness in the past decade. You fucking can’t, because the exact opposite is true, and the perception of the Woke Mob running Hollywood is a fiction driven by failing, aggrieved white people.
Reading Vincent O'Malley's The Invasion of the Waikato, and struck by how one of the successes of colonisation is the erasure from the Pākehā consciousness that this violence even occurred in the first place. Almost every site is one I have visited or driven through hundreds, thousands of times.
July 27, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reading Vincent O'Malley's The Invasion of the Waikato, and struck by how one of the successes of colonisation is the erasure from the Pākehā consciousness that this violence even occurred in the first place. Almost every site is one I have visited or driven through hundreds, thousands of times.
New Newsletter: Stream of Consciousness Development, about a super useful pairing technique I discovered last week
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
Stream of Consciousness Driven Development
Better pairing through touch typing
buttondown.com
February 18, 2026 at 4:40 PM
New Newsletter: Stream of Consciousness Development, about a super useful pairing technique I discovered last week
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
buttondown.com/hillelwayne/...
An LLM-driven digital ghost is not a mind, it has no consciousness or awareness, and it only "acts like" its living source model in specific ways that the modeler is able to quantify and cares about quantifying, and they are psychologically incentivized to grade on a generous curve.
July 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
An LLM-driven digital ghost is not a mind, it has no consciousness or awareness, and it only "acts like" its living source model in specific ways that the modeler is able to quantify and cares about quantifying, and they are psychologically incentivized to grade on a generous curve.
She voted for him in a sex-driven, drug-fueled waking hallucination that barely counts as consciousness, its okay!
October 6, 2025 at 3:56 AM
She voted for him in a sex-driven, drug-fueled waking hallucination that barely counts as consciousness, its okay!
Star Trek: Shadow Frontier announced, a psychological thriller by Bloober Team (Silent Hill 2, Cronos)
Teaser ▶️ youtube.com/watch?v=K2hc...
▪️Third-person, story driven action-adventure coming to PS5/Xbox/Switch 2/PC
▪️Play as Ro Laren, set on a distant planet "overtaken by a strange consciousness"
Teaser ▶️ youtube.com/watch?v=K2hc...
▪️Third-person, story driven action-adventure coming to PS5/Xbox/Switch 2/PC
▪️Play as Ro Laren, set on a distant planet "overtaken by a strange consciousness"
June 6, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Star Trek: Shadow Frontier announced, a psychological thriller by Bloober Team (Silent Hill 2, Cronos)
Teaser ▶️ youtube.com/watch?v=K2hc...
▪️Third-person, story driven action-adventure coming to PS5/Xbox/Switch 2/PC
▪️Play as Ro Laren, set on a distant planet "overtaken by a strange consciousness"
Teaser ▶️ youtube.com/watch?v=K2hc...
▪️Third-person, story driven action-adventure coming to PS5/Xbox/Switch 2/PC
▪️Play as Ro Laren, set on a distant planet "overtaken by a strange consciousness"
Capitalism is driven by economics and class consciousness among the bourgeoisie. The moral/spiritual underpinnings are tools the ruling class use to justify and maintain the status quo but they are not the drivers
January 29, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Capitalism is driven by economics and class consciousness among the bourgeoisie. The moral/spiritual underpinnings are tools the ruling class use to justify and maintain the status quo but they are not the drivers
i hate self consciousness on the page. it drives me mad. and this weird Furry Fine Art thing is market-driven self consciousness. its a nervous shuffling of "now what". "my turn." "me next". not, "i have something to say". not "here's an extended hand". distracting! frustrating! unsubstantial!
September 8, 2026 at 11:03 PM
i hate self consciousness on the page. it drives me mad. and this weird Furry Fine Art thing is market-driven self consciousness. its a nervous shuffling of "now what". "my turn." "me next". not, "i have something to say". not "here's an extended hand". distracting! frustrating! unsubstantial!
So we’re clear, Black elders predicted all of this.
They taught us to never trust banks, to keep emergency cash;
Our Elders taught us to turn inward, to nurture our internal Black consciousness and community—
ALL in unspoken preparation for an eventual White Nationalist takeover.
Now here we are
They taught us to never trust banks, to keep emergency cash;
Our Elders taught us to turn inward, to nurture our internal Black consciousness and community—
ALL in unspoken preparation for an eventual White Nationalist takeover.
Now here we are
Project 2025 Tracker
A comprehensive, community-driven initiative to track the implementation of Project 2025's policy proposals
project2025.observer
October 28, 2025 at 7:32 PM
So we’re clear, Black elders predicted all of this.
They taught us to never trust banks, to keep emergency cash;
Our Elders taught us to turn inward, to nurture our internal Black consciousness and community—
ALL in unspoken preparation for an eventual White Nationalist takeover.
Now here we are
They taught us to never trust banks, to keep emergency cash;
Our Elders taught us to turn inward, to nurture our internal Black consciousness and community—
ALL in unspoken preparation for an eventual White Nationalist takeover.
Now here we are
Commission for @Justinshiftery13.bsky.social - Zeydaan and Isabella in an unknown realm. Split between three different states of being as her consciousness is driven down the paths of Chaos, Hollow and Order.
November 5, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Commission for @Justinshiftery13.bsky.social - Zeydaan and Isabella in an unknown realm. Split between three different states of being as her consciousness is driven down the paths of Chaos, Hollow and Order.
Here's two in one day for you. Driven solely by how annoyed I'm growing at the "we should invade Mexico" rhetoric. It's stupid. Don't do it.
Sicario and the American Consciousness
Aesthetics as an Illusion of Power
othermeans.substack.com
August 27, 2023 at 11:58 PM
Here's two in one day for you. Driven solely by how annoyed I'm growing at the "we should invade Mexico" rhetoric. It's stupid. Don't do it.
The 2024 election, among other things, was a complete repudiation of the idea that a movement driven by material class consciousness could also represent the interests of people marginalized for any reason beyond penury
The white supremacy of the Right is to attack Black Civil Rights through voter suppression, gerrymandering, anti DEI policy, etc.
The white supremacy of the far left is to act like Black people don’t exist by saying both parties are the same as if the fight against those issues isn’t happening
The white supremacy of the far left is to act like Black people don’t exist by saying both parties are the same as if the fight against those issues isn’t happening
August 9, 2025 at 11:52 PM
The 2024 election, among other things, was a complete repudiation of the idea that a movement driven by material class consciousness could also represent the interests of people marginalized for any reason beyond penury