Jeremy Sherman

Once there was no life. Then there was life. Now there’s so much strife we might end life as we know it. Jeremy Sherman researches all of that - strategy from the origins of life to everyday and political life. With a Masters in public policy and a Ph.D. in evolutionary and decision theory, he has collaborated for 20 years with Harvard/Berkeley scientist Terrence Deacon trying to solve the biggest mystery in science today: How mattering emerges from matter, life from chemistry, means-to-ends trying from cause-and-effect phenomena. Sherman’s new book, Neither Ghost Nor Machine: The emergence and nature of selves (Columbia University Press) harvests altogether new scientific perspectives on value, significance, purpose, information, free will, and society. Sherman has also written over 1200 articles for Psychology Today on everyday decision-making, under the heading Ambigamy: Insights for the deeply romantic and deeply skeptical, and many articles elsewhere on political decision making. Delivering what Psychology Today’s editor in chief describes as, “mind candy for people who aren’t afraid to think” Sherman is playful yet rigorous, opening worm-cans of wonder and stirring readers to locate their everyday lives in the very big picture.