Copyright © 2021 by Alan Lightman
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Portions of this book were originally published, in slightly different form, in the following publications: “What Came Before the Big Bang?” in Harper’s, January 1, 2016 · “Nothingness,” in Nautilus, August 28, 2014 · “Atoms,” in Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (New York: Pantheon, 2018) · “In Defense of Disorder,” in Aeon, April 15, 2019 · “Miracles,” in Guernica, September 15, 2015 · “The Anatomy of Attention,” in The New Yorker, October 1, 2014 · “Smile,” in Science 84, 1984 · “Immortality” appeared as “Consciousness” in The Fabulist, March 2018 · “Our Lonely Home in Nature,” in The New York Times, May 3, 2014 · “Ghost House of My Childhood,” in The New York Times, August 22, 2015 · “Is Life Special?” in Nautilus, October 15, 2015.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lightman, Alan P., [date] author.
Title: Probable impossibilities: musings on beginnings and endings / Alan Lightman.
Description: First edition. New York: Pantheon Books, 2021. Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020013914 (print) | LCCN 2020013915 (ebook) | ISBN 9781524749019 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781524749026 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Cosmology. Metaphysics. Philosophy of mind. Physics—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC QB981 .L544 2020 (print) | LCC QB981 (ebook) | DDC 523.1—dc23
LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2020013914
LC ebook record available at lccn.loc.gov/2020013915
Ebook ISBN 9781524749026
Cover image: vinap/Shutterstock
Cover design by Henry Sene Yee
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