{"id":22209,"date":"2026-03-05T16:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/our-consciousness-is-under-siege-michael-pollan-on-chatbots-social-media-and-mental-freedom\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:37:16","slug":"our-consciousness-is-under-siege-michael-pollan-on-chatbots-social-media-and-mental-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/our-consciousness-is-under-siege-michael-pollan-on-chatbots-social-media-and-mental-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our consciousness is under siege\u2019: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need \u2018consciousness hygiene\u2019 to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms<\/p>\n

Each day when you wake up, you come back to yourself. You see the room around you, feel your body brush against your clothes and think about your plans, worries and hopes for the day. This daily internal experience is miraculous and mysterious, and the subject of Michael Pollan\u2019s new book, A World Appears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also may be under siege, Pollan said. He recently suggested<\/a> that people need a \u201cconsciousness hygiene\u201d to defend our internal world against invaders that are trying to move in. Our ability to sit with our thoughts and perceive the world, he argues, is increasingly disrupted by algorithms engineered to tickle our dopamine receptors and capture our attention. Meanwhile, people are forming attachments to non-human chatbots, projecting consciousness on to entities that do not possess it.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nIn his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need \u2018consciousness hygiene\u2019 to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms
\nEach day when you wake up, you come back to yourself. You see the room around you, feel your body brush against your clothes and think about your plans, worries and hopes for the day. This daily internal experience is miraculous and mysterious, and the subject of Michael Pollan\u2019s new book, A World Appears.
\nIt also may be under siege, Pollan said. He recently suggested that people need a \u201cconsciousness hygiene\u201d to defend our internal world against invaders that are trying to move in. Our ability to sit with our thoughts and perceive the world, he argues, is increasingly disrupted by algorithms engineered to tickle our dopamine receptors and capture our attention. Meanwhile, people are forming attachments to non-human chatbots, projecting consciousness on to entities that do not possess it. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his new book, the celebrated author explains why we need \u2018consciousness hygiene\u2019 to defend ourselves from AI and dopamine-driven algorithms Each day when you wake up, you come back to yourself. You see the room around you, feel your body brush against your clothes and think about your plans, worries and hopes for the …<\/p>\n

\u2018Our consciousness is under siege\u2019: Michael Pollan on chatbots, social media and mental freedom<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}