I’ve been very lucky in my life, something which I certainly did not earn (see the previous ~400 pages for details). In my book-writing realm, that good fortune has included having wonderful, generous colleagues and friends who, along with my family, have provided feedback (sometimes in the form of conversations going back decades, and/or who have read sections of this book, amid any mistakes being my own). These include:
Peter Alces, William and Mary Law School
David Barash, University of Washington
Alessandro Bartolomucci, University of Minnesota
Robert Bishop, Wheaton College
Sean Carroll, Johns Hopkins University
Gregg Caruso, State University of New York
Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago
Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University
Hank Greely, Stanford University
Josh Greene, Harvard University
Daniel Greenwood, Hofstra University School of Law, cofounder of the “Third-Floor Holmes Hall Ethics of Free Will and Determinism” lecture series almost half a century ago
Sam Harris
Robin Hiesinger, Free University of Berlin
Jim Kahn, University of California, San Francisco
Neil Levy, Oxford University
Liqun Luo, Stanford University
Rickard Sjoberg, Umea University, Sweden
The late Bruce Waller, Youngstown State University.
Thanks as well to Bhupendra Madhiwalla, Tom Mendosa, Raul Rivers, and Harlen Tanenbaum.
I am now many books into having Katinka Matson as my book agent, and many years into having Steven Barclay as my speaking agent—deep thanks to you both for your friendship and for always having my back.
At Penguin Random House, I thank Hilary Roberts for her careful read and suggestions as copy editor. I warmly thank Mia Council for overseeing the process of getting this book to print, and for providing some truly insightful feedback. Most of all, I thank Scott Moyers, my editor for this and my previous book; your help has been such that at every juncture where my writing/thinking/self-confidence has stalled, my automatic first thought now is “What would Scott say?”
I closed my lab about a decade ago. Typically, lab scientists ending research at what was a relatively young age do so to become the dean of something or other, or an editor of a science journal. As such, my bidding farewell to pipetting in order to sit at home writing is unorthodox; I am grateful to Stanford University for the intellectual freedom that it gifts its faculty, and to the two chairs of my department during this period—Martha Cyert and Time Stearns—and the late, truly beloved Bob Simoni.
And heck, while we’re at it, thanks to Tony Fauci for battling the Forces of Darkness. And good going Malala.
Thanks to our twelve-pound Havanese, Kupenda, and our eighty-five-pound Golden Retriever, Safi. The former has taught me how social status is more about social intelligence than muscle mass, passing his days terrorizing the helpless, hapless latter. And to the primate members of my family—Benjamin and Rachel, who bring me joy beyond measure, and to Lisa, my everything.