Ezra Klein

To put on our shoes in a semi-efficient manner.

But it involves putting these blinders on.

So there's a trade-off.

And one of the things psychedelics do, and Allison made this point to me also, is return us to lantern consciousness.

And, you know, she said in an interview with me and to other people, you know, when she first tried LSD, which wasn't until I think her 60s, she realized, oh, this is how the kids are thinking.

They're tripping all the time.

And she said, just have tea with a four-year-old and you'll see.

And there's a lot of truth to that, I think.

So the phrase comes from a scientist named Mark Soames, who is a neuroscientist and a psychoanalyst in South Africa.

And he's written a really interesting book called The Hidden Spring.

And his theory is that consciousness arises when...

You can't automate things.

And in this case, he's talking about the fact that you might have two competing needs.

Let's say you're hungry and you're tired and you have to decide which to privilege.

And that takes decision-making.

And what consciousness does is open up this space to resolve uncertainty.

So if everything was predictable in the world and you could be certain when this happens, that happens, you know, and you had a kind of neat algorithm to deal with contingencies,

You don't need it.

But a lot of life presents us with uncertainty.

And that's when consciousness arises.