This book owes its existence to the generosity and support of many people and institutions. I count myself very lucky to have the support of my academic home, Arizona State University, in a tremendous range of large and small ways. Thanks go to President Michael Crow, for hiring me and making my unique position possible, and to the many university leaders who continue to support our strange experiment in imagination. I am especially thankful to the School of Arts, Media & Engineering, Director Sha Xin Wei, and Deans Steven Tepper and George Justice, for granting a vital research leave during the early composition phase of the book.
I am deeply grateful to my colleagues at the Center for Science and the Imagination who have supported my long and solitary sojourn as I carved out time to work on this book among many other pressing projects. Thanks to Ruth Wylie for taking on a huge burden of leadership during this period, and to Joey Eschrich, Michael Bennett, Brian David Johnson, Nina Miller, Bob Beard, Cody Staats, and Chelsea Courtney for making CSI such an exciting and rewarding place to work. A special thank you to Joey for heroic editorial efforts as I revised the manuscript, and to Joseph Bianchi for assisting me with image permissions.
A number of people gave me vital feedback on the work as it emerged: Lee Konstantinou, Corey Pressman, Jacqueline Wernimont, Sam Arbesman, G. Pascal Zachary, and George Justice. Nathaniel Greene and Connor Syrewicz were invaluable as research assistants for the project. I’m also grateful to the students of my Arts, Media & Engineering graduate seminar, Reading the Algorithm, for helping me clarify a number of ideas relating to the book. Perhaps the single greatest day for feedback came from a tremendous event titled “The Tyranny of Algorithms,” organized by my wonderful colleagues at Future Tense, a partnership of ASU, New America, and Slate magazine. Thanks to Torie Bosch and Will Oremus at Slate and Richard Gallant at CNN for feedback, conversation, and the chance to publish some of my thoughts along the way. And finally, I am very grateful to my collaborators at MIT Press: my editor, Doug Sery, for believing in this book; Michael Sims for his dedicated copyediting; and director Amy Brand for her support and enthusiasm of our multiple editorial projects.
All of these interventions, redirections, shows of support, and good advice vastly improved the book and I could not have finished it without them. All remaining imperfections are entirely my own.
Finally, I thank the Finns of Phoenix, my own intrepid band of adventurers, dancers, ad-hoc parade leaders, and dessert aficionados. Anna, Nora, Declan: I love you more than numbers can count or words can say.