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ATCan a machine have feelings?
Esteemed science writer @michael.pollan doesn’t think AI consciousness is the real conversation we should be having. Speaking at the @bioneers Conference, Pollan argued that genuine feelings depend on having a body that is vulnerable, that can suffer, and that can die. Without that, he says, any emotion a machine expresses is essentially weightless—a simulation, not a reality.
For Pollan, the stakes go far beyond philosophy. As AI companies push the idea that their systems may be developing a new form of consciousness, he warns that we risk losing sight of our moral obligations to the animals and people who actually share our experience of being alive. The choice of who—or what—we welcome into our circle of moral consideration, he argues, will define us as a species.
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