Odds On

Michael Crichton (1942-2008) was the author of the ground-breaking novels The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Prey, State of Fear and Next, among many others. Crichton’s books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide, have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and provided the basis for thirteen feature films. Also known as a filmmaker and creator of ER, he remains the only writer to have a number one book, movie, and TV show in the same year.

John Lange, the author of Philosophy and the Challenge of the Future, is a full professor at Queens College, of the City University of New York. He usually teaches in the areas of epistemology, the philosophy of history, and the philosophy of anticipation, exploring intellectual territories outside the typical borders of the discipline, such as reprogenetics, cloning, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, artificial life, unusual moral communities, and identity criteria, both with respect to sameness of person and sameness of species. He has had one book published by a major university press, the Princeton University Press, and has edited another, published the Stanford University Press. He also wrote The Philosophy of Historiography, and has had a number of articles published in professional journals, such as Mind, Ratio, and History and Theory.