N. Katherine Hayles - Search Results Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious

This book could not have come into being had it not been for the generous assistance, intellectual stimulation, and collaborations that helped to catalyze my thoughts (and unthoughts), refine my arguments, and extend my reach. Of primary importance were funding sources that gave me the time to think and writea sabbatical year from Duke University, a fellowship from the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Durham, UK, and an appointment as the Critical Inquiry Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. I am pleased to acknowledge their assistance.

During my months in Durham (UK), the windy winter days were warmed by the friends I made there, including Linda Crowe, Mikhail Epstein, Gerhard Lauer, Gerald Moore, Richard Reed, Nicholas Saul, and Veronica Strang. At the University of Chicago, the unparalleled Tom Mitchell was a constant friend, Bill Brown, an inspiring presence, Frances Ferguson, consistently friendly and generous with her time; and the Society of Fellows offered an opportunity for challenging and insightful exchanges. Hank Scotch provided material help and scrupulously accurate copyediting assistance.

Also crucial were scholars who were willing to share their forthcoming work with me before it appeared in print, including Louise Amoore, Ulrik Ekman, Mark Hansen, William Hutchison, Ann-Christina Lange, Luciana Parisi, and Patrick Whitmarsh. Their trust that I would handle these resources appropriately warmed my heart. Providing support and stimulation were my outstanding colleagues at Duke University (Durham, NC), including Rey Chow, Elizabeth Grosz, Mark Hansen, Barbara Herrnstein-Smith, Deborah Jenson, Tim Lenoir, Victoria Szabo, Toril Moi, Antonio Viego, and Robyn Wiegman. At Duke Kunshan University, where I taught in fall 2015, especially important for my months there was the support of Andrew Field, Haiyan Gao, and Deedra McClearn. Mark Kruse, my co-teacher in our course Science Fiction/Science Fact, deserves special mention for his remarkable patience, clear expositions, and generosity in providing guidance to me and our students as we probed the complexities of quantum mechanics and relativity theory. Providing help and valuable resources was my research assistant Maryann Murtagh. Marjorie Luesebrink, a lifelong friend, lighted up innumerable conversations and dinners together as we hashed over many of the ideas that found their way into this book.

One of the delights of getting older is to see ones former students flourish in their own right, often with cutting-edge work that exceeds whatever I might have accomplished. I have been fortunate to work with an extraordinarily talented group of young scholars who are now setting the agendas for their fields, including Olivia Banner, Zach Blas, Nathan Brown, Todd Gannon, Amanda Gould, Patrick Jagoda, Melody Jue, Patrick Le Mieux, Kate Marshall, Jessica Pressman, David Rambo, Jenny Rhee, Allen Riddell, David Shepard, John Stadler, and Vidar Thorsteinsson.

I am indebted to many scientists, cultural critics, media theorists, and humanists whose writing and research were crucially important for this project and for my work in general, including Karen Barad, Lauren Berlant, Rosi Braidotti, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Antonio Damasio, Stanislas Dehaene, Gerald Edelman, Danuta Fjellestad, Elizabeth Grosz, Mark Hansen, Donald MacKenzie, Franco Moretti, Luciana Parisi, Garrett Stewart, and Giulio Tononi. Alan Thomas, my editor at the University of Chicago Press, has been a constant friend and colleague now for many years, and I owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for his steadfast support.

My greatest debt, as always, is to my partner and friend, Nicholas Gessler, who never fails to amaze with his encyclopedic knowledge of everything technical, his dedication to figuring things out for himself, his curiosity about the material world, and his love, warmth, and generosity.

I am grateful to the following for giving me permission to reprint previously published material in this book: most of chapter 2 appeared as The Cognitive Nonconscious: Enlarging the Mind of the Humanities in Critical Inquiry 4 (4): 783808 (Summer 2016), and most of chapter 5 also appeared in Critical Inquiry, Cognitive Assemblages: Technical Agency and Human Interactions 5 (1) (Autumn 2016), 2016 by The University of Chicago, all rights reserved; portions of chapter 6 appeared as The Cognitive Nonconscious and Automated Trading Algorithms, in Parole, criture, code, edited by Emmanuele Quinz, translated by Stphane Vanderhaeghe, Petite Collection ArtsH2H (Paris-Dijon: Les presses du rel, 2015); and portions of chapter 8 appeared as Cognition Everywhere: The Rise of the Cognitive Nonconscious and the Costs of Consciousness, in New Literary History 45.2 (Spring 2014): 199220.