This book was a delight to write, and I am very grateful to those who provided feedback on the project and to the institutions that have sponsored the research for this book. Chapters Two through Four were written in the midst of a stimulating project on AI consciousness at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Chapter Seven grew out of my research project with NASA and a fruitful series of collaborations with those at the Center for Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, NJ. Special thanks to Robin Lovin, Josh Mauldin, and Will Storrar for hosting me there.

I also owe thanks to Piet Hut at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton for hosting me as a visiting member at the Institute. I’ve learned a good deal from the members of our weekly AI lunch group, organized by Hut and Olaf Witkowski. Edwin Turner has been a frequent collaborator, both at IAS and CTI, and I’ve enjoyed our joint work immensely. I also benefited from discussing these issues with the members of my AI, Mind and Society (AIMS) Group. In particular, Mary Gregg, Jenelle Salisbury, and Cody Turner deserve special thanks for their insightful remarks on chapters of this book.

Some of these chapters draw from shorter, earlier pieces that appeared in The New York Times, Nautilus, and Scientific American. The themes of Chapter Four were inspired and expanded from a piece in Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Liao, 2020), and Chapter Six expands on material in my “Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain,” in Science Fiction and Philosophy (Schneider, 2009b). Chapter Seven draws from essays appearing in astrobiology volumes by Dick (2013) and Losch (2017).

While putting the final touches on the book, I’ve served as the Distinguished Scholar chair at the Library of Congress, and I am grateful to those at the Kluge Center for hosting me there, especially John Haskell, Travis Hensley, and Dan Turello. I’m also appreciative of the feedback from colleagues at the University of Connecticut, where I presented this material at our department brown bags and in a cognitive science colloquium. I’m grateful to audiences and hosts at talks at Cambridge University, the University of Colorado, Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts, Stanford University, the University of Arizona, Boston University, Duke University, 24Hours, and the cognitive science and plasma physics departments and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

I greatly appreciate the efforts of those who held and spoke at conferences on themes in my work. “Minds, Selves and Technology” in Lisbon, Portugal, was organized by Rob Clowes, Klaus Gardner, and Ines Hipolito. I am also grateful to the Czech Academy of Sciences for hosting the Ernst Mach Workshop in Prague in the June 2019 celebration of this book. And I thank PBS for televising my lecture on the material that became Chapter Six, and Greg Gutfeld at Fox TV for hosting me for an entire show covering the material in the book.

Stephen Cave, Joe Corabi, Michael Huemer, George Musser, Matt Rohal, and Eric Schwitzgebel sent extensive comments on the entire manuscript and were responsible for many improvements. I’ve also benefited tremendously from conversations on the material with John Brockman, Antonio Chella, David Chalmers, Eric Henney, Carlos Montemayor, Martin Rees, David Sahner, Michael Solomon, and Dan Turello. I am grateful to Josh Schishler for discussing his experience with Kim Suozzi with me. Special thanks to the fabulous team at Princeton University Press (Cyd Westmoreland, Sara Henning-Stout, Rob Tempio, and all the others) and especially to Matt Rohal for editing the book with such care. (Alas, I worry that I’ve failed to remember someone’s efforts and insights, and if this is the case, I’m sorry.)

Finally, I thank my husband, David Ronemus. Our wonderful conversations about AI helped inspire the material in the book. This book is lovingly dedicated to our children: Elena, Alex, and Ally. I would be immensely gratified if this book makes even a modest contribution toward helping younger generations negotiate the technological and philosophical challenges I’ve discussed.