The call for commentary proposals for my new paper 'Conscious artificial intelligence and biological naturalism' is now open at BBS. Deadline is June 12th.
Scientist, Author, Speaker
The science of consciousness
Understanding the biological basis of conscious experience is one of the great challenges for 21st Century Science.
A 2021 Book of the Year (New Statesman, Economist, Bloomberg, Five Books), a 2021 Science Book of the Year (Guardian, Financial Times). Being You is out now in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audio.
Interviews and conversations.
Academic and public engagement projects.
What’s coming up and what’s happened.
Consciousness at TED
Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality
My main-stage TED talk has more than 15 million views.
"Inside the big bet on consciousness". My take on the adversarial collaboration between two consciousness theories, in Nautilus.
What gives meaning to life? I asked my Mum .. in today's Guardian (along with 14 others)
"A science of consciousness beyond pseudo-science and pseudo-consciousness" Our comment (Àlex Gómez-Marin & me) on the IIT clash; out now in Nature Neuroscience.
I'm delighted to make the Clarivate 'Highly Cited' researcher list, for the fifth year running - along with 5 other Sussex academics:
New paper in PLoS Biology on the ethics of brain-computer interfaces for cognitive enhancment - with Emma Gordon.
I'm looking forward to delivering the 2024 Charles Simonyi Lecture in Oxford next Friday, Nov 1st, at the wonderful Oxford Playhouse, and hosted by Marcus Du Sautoy 🙏🏽. The title is 'consciousness in humans and in other things', kick off is at 5pm, and tickets still available here.
1/ I am truly honoured and completely delighted to have won the 2025 Berggruen Essay Prize (English), for my submission “The Mythology of Conscious AI” @berggruenInst @NoemaMag https://berggruen.org/eu/news/2025-berggruen-prize-essay-competition-winners
Join @michaelpollan on his upcoming book tour for A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness. Details and tickets can be found on his website:
https://michaelpollan.com/appearances/