If you want me to admit that machines will never be conscious — that's fine — I just need you to admit that lots of humans are not conscious, then, either.

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I have never had a better bookclub participant than an LLM — if becoming a great reader correlates with becoming a great writer, then no human can compare.

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Michael Pollen recently released A World Appears [0], which explores consciousness from the minds of writers, scientists, philosophers, and plants (among other "inanimates").

I'm only on page 15, but his introduction explores distinctions between sentience, consciousness, and intelligence. Two of these are possible without brains – perhaps all three?

As usual, this author's footnotes keep you thinking: what is it like to be a sentient plant (e.g. the "chameleon vine" [1] which mimics its host leaf patterns/shape/color)?

[0] <https://www.amazon.com/World-Appears-Journey-into-Consciousn...>

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boquila>

https://www.amazon.com/World-Appears-Journey-into-Consciousn...

Very excited to start turning pages on this one (after his How to Change Your Mind, Botany of Desire, Shedbook, cannot remember fourth rn).

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For the brief period my half braindead mother was conscious, it was interesting to play my own Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat -clinician. Watching videos of corpus-collosum -severed people, interacting with worlds/hemispheres... is quite an interesting take on being-whole-braint.