A minute before I met the Author of the Universe, I was wandering the world quite comfortably attired in a pleasant naïveté. I didn’t know where the Universe came from and I had no formula for bringing about a better world that didn’t include a giant asteroid — though I had been seeking such a formula for millennia. But, all I wanted just then was to wangle a nourishing lunch via the application of artful storytelling. Could I have guessed that the crusty octogenarian in the pub was the AOU?

To save you some trouble, may I offer that any entity introducing itself as the Author of the Universe should be avoided? This applies to the brightest of you too. And to reinforce the point, Melissa, a former Princeton graduate student, now the smartest person on Earth is also an acquaintance of the Author of the Universe. Even a skeptic in training has learned the hard lesson of undiscriminated acquintance. On the plus side, she no longer falls asleep in class. She no longer has to go to class.

So, because I was trapped by the ethics that require one to reciprocate value for receiving a free lunch, and because Melissa feared being bored to death, we joined together in a moderately challenging endeavor — to facilitate the survival of our species — the history of which can be found in this portion of the Force Bottle Journals. May it serve your purposes now.

Editor’s Note:

THODKIN’S SPEAR is an immensely readable — and highly original — “fictional” grand tour through the big issues facing mankind at this evolutionary turning point: longevity, morality, truth, evolution, reason, religion, an afterlife, and the advance of science and technology, just to name a few. Scott Ellison paints possibilities with a wise and colorful brush in this literate, entertaining and important book.

Okay, we’re biased, but that’s what we think about ‘Spear.