Acknowledgements remind you that “a single author” is usually a convenient fiction. Behind the voice sits a network: editors who cut and sharpen, researchers who chase facts, colleagues who argue, friends who notice blind spots.
In a book about intersubjective realities—shared stories that coordinate large groups—this matters. The production of ideas is also collective. A manuscript is shaped by conversations, institutions, and invisible labor.
The section also works as a tonal release. After chapters that question human agency and elevate algorithms, gratitude pulls the focus back to ordinary human dependence: we learn through other people, and we build by borrowing.
If the future threatens to make individuals feel smaller, acknowledgements quietly insist on a different truth: intelligence is often communal, and clarity is rarely achieved alone.