身為心理學背景的一員，我一直對於人類是否有自由意志的議題非常有興趣。這是個很難的問題，如果說有自由意志，為什麼會有很多無法控制的行為？如果說沒有自由意志，那為何我覺得可以控制自己要說什麼要做什麼？
這是很頭痛的哲學問題，導致好像變成怪人才有興趣的話題，像是影集True Detective裡面Rust(馬修麥康納飾)整天講些莫名其妙的話："I think human consciousness was a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware... We are creatures that should not exist by natural law... We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self. This accretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assureance that we are each somebody when, in fact, everybody is nobody."
隨著科技的發展，這個問題不再專屬於神秘的哲學家領域，而能夠用更具體的科學證據探討。本書的作者Gazzaniga根據長期的腦科學研究，提供一個頗有說服力的答案。
