作者
羅伯．薩波斯基 Robert M. Sapolsky
神經生物學家（研究大腦的人）暨靈長類對物學家（研究猴子和猩猩的人），從小喜歡閱讀，花長時間閱讀和想像與銀背大猩猩一起生活的樣貌。出生於紐約布魯克林，父親是來自蘇聯的猶太移民。
1978年，薩波斯基在哈佛大學以優異成績獲得生物人類學學位後，前往肯亞研究野外猩猩的社會行為。之後回到紐約並在洛克菲勒大學學習，獲得博士學位。目前是史丹福大學生物學暨神經學教授，麥克阿瑟基金會授予研究資助，也是好幾本書的作者。著有數本非虛構作品，包括《一隻靈長類動物的回憶錄》（A Primate’s Memoir）、《睪固酮的麻煩》（The Trouble with Testosteron）和《為什麼斑馬不會得胃潰瘍？》（Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers）、《行為：人類最好和最糟行為背後的生物學》（BEHAVE：The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst）。與妻子、兩個孩子和養的狗住在舊金山。
譯者
唐澄暐
政治大學新聞系、台南藝術大學紀錄所畢業。曾任《台灣立報》國際版版主及編譯。喜愛怪獸及幻想作品，目前同時從事翻譯及怪獸小說寫作。譯有《世界觀：現代年輕人必懂的科學哲學和科學史》《我們的知與不知：探索科學、歷史、人類心智的知識邊界》、《數字公民：如何打造你的識數世界觀，輕鬆成為現代公民！》、《人慈：橫跨二十萬年的人性旅程，用更好的視角看待自己》等書。
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Description
命定：沒有自由意志的科學: : Robert M. Sapolsky BehaveRobert M. Sapolsky Robert M. Sapolsky 1978A Primates MemoirThe Trouble with TestosteronWhy Zebras Dont Get UlcersBEHAVEThe Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
作者: 羅伯．薩波斯基 | 譯者: 唐澄暐
《行為》作者羅伯．薩波斯基（Robert M. Sapolsky）
從神經認知科學出發，以詼諧輕鬆的方式，反駁了自由意志的神話。
提出人類每一個行為，背後都是由一系列複雜的生物學、神經科學和環境因素的結果，
其中不存在自由意志運作的空間。
薩波斯基也對歷史上人們如何對於思覺失調症患者、
癲癇患者、自閉症、異己者、犯罪者施予懲罰進行了耙梳，
證明人們對於精神疾病和行惡者者越來越瞭解，我們就會變得更具同理心和人道，
加上不存在自由意志的最後一擊，
我們會發現「所謂報應式的懲罰，是徒勞而錯誤的做法」，
從而改變我們的社會和法律框架，比起懲罰更重視矯正。
行為科學家、暢銷書《行為》（Behave）作者羅伯．薩波斯基（Robert M. Sapolsky），暨《行為》之後，深入探討了關於人類做選擇和決定背後的生物科學，以及哲學，提出駁斥自由意志存在的毀滅性案例，呈現出一個具有深遠影響的論點，那就是「人類沒有自由意志」。
在《行為》一書中，他探討人類行為的生物學、神經科學和環境因素，甚至文化因素，表明人類任何一個行為背後，都是由一秒之前、一分鐘之前、一天之前、一年之前、一千年之前……一系列複雜的基因、神經學、環境、文化因素所構成。我們也許無法精準掌握所有結合先天、後天的物理反應和化學反應；但這些生理機制確實深刻影響了我們每個當下的行為表達。而這隱含了「我們的行為是被生理機制和環境共同決定，沒有自由意志運作的空間」的神經科學強烈主張。
在《命定》中，薩波斯基用了一整本書（在《行為》中只用一章篇幅）針對決定論和自由意志展開論證。針對我們幻想――也就是有個獨立存在的自我告訴我們該做什麼（即自由意志）――展開一場精彩的正面攻擊。告訴我們，其實所謂的自由意志，只是一種幻覺罷了。他也不假辭色地駁斥了現代物理學提出的、似乎能佐證非決定論的混沌理論、突現複雜性科學和量子物理學，其實都是決定論的，再次向我們展示了自由意志並不存在。
他的探討不僅停留在學術上的討論，更著重在實際道德責任、歸咎、懲罰、法律判刑等實際運作上，提出當我們「超越自由意志的存在」而對生命擁有新理解後，將會面對「人類就不需為自己的行為負責」的結論，卻不至於使整個社會運作失控。反而提出從歷史上來看，當我們能夠瞭解許多人行惡是眾多因素交織而成的結果，就會更擁有同理心，也能以更人道的看法看待懲罰的概念，從而改善我們的法律體系和懲罰制度，比起懲罰，更重視事前預防犯罪和矯正，便能以更人性化的方式來打造更有同理心的世界。
無論你是否贊成他的觀點，這本書都將成為以有憑有據的論證來挑戰你的可敬對手，引發你深入思考人性、人類行為，以及我們究竟是誰的觀點。
從神經認知科學出發，以詼諧輕鬆的方式，反駁了自由意志的神話。
提出人類每一個行為，背後都是由一系列複雜的生物學、神經科學和環境因素的結果，
其中不存在自由意志運作的空間。
薩波斯基也對歷史上人們如何對於思覺失調症患者、
癲癇患者、自閉症、異己者、犯罪者施予懲罰進行了耙梳，
證明人們對於精神疾病和行惡者者越來越瞭解，我們就會變得更具同理心和人道，
加上不存在自由意志的最後一擊，
我們會發現「所謂報應式的懲罰，是徒勞而錯誤的做法」，
從而改變我們的社會和法律框架，比起懲罰更重視矯正。
行為科學家、暢銷書《行為》（Behave）作者羅伯．薩波斯基（Robert M. Sapolsky），暨《行為》之後，深入探討了關於人類做選擇和決定背後的生物科學，以及哲學，提出駁斥自由意志存在的毀滅性案例，呈現出一個具有深遠影響的論點，那就是「人類沒有自由意志」。
在《行為》一書中，他探討人類行為的生物學、神經科學和環境因素，甚至文化因素，表明人類任何一個行為背後，都是由一秒之前、一分鐘之前、一天之前、一年之前、一千年之前……一系列複雜的基因、神經學、環境、文化因素所構成。我們也許無法精準掌握所有結合先天、後天的物理反應和化學反應；但這些生理機制確實深刻影響了我們每個當下的行為表達。而這隱含了「我們的行為是被生理機制和環境共同決定，沒有自由意志運作的空間」的神經科學強烈主張。
在《命定》中，薩波斯基用了一整本書（在《行為》中只用一章篇幅）針對決定論和自由意志展開論證。針對我們幻想――也就是有個獨立存在的自我告訴我們該做什麼（即自由意志）――展開一場精彩的正面攻擊。告訴我們，其實所謂的自由意志，只是一種幻覺罷了。他也不假辭色地駁斥了現代物理學提出的、似乎能佐證非決定論的混沌理論、突現複雜性科學和量子物理學，其實都是決定論的，再次向我們展示了自由意志並不存在。
他的探討不僅停留在學術上的討論，更著重在實際道德責任、歸咎、懲罰、法律判刑等實際運作上，提出當我們「超越自由意志的存在」而對生命擁有新理解後，將會面對「人類就不需為自己的行為負責」的結論，卻不至於使整個社會運作失控。反而提出從歷史上來看，當我們能夠瞭解許多人行惡是眾多因素交織而成的結果，就會更擁有同理心，也能以更人道的看法看待懲罰的概念，從而改善我們的法律體系和懲罰制度，比起懲罰，更重視事前預防犯罪和矯正，便能以更人性化的方式來打造更有同理心的世界。
無論你是否贊成他的觀點，這本書都將成為以有憑有據的論證來挑戰你的可敬對手，引發你深入思考人性、人類行為，以及我們究竟是誰的觀點。
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4.8 ★★★★★
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★★★★★ 5
Amazing!
Format: Kindle, Format: Kindle
This book was phenomenal, I devoured it within a few days! For this being a debut novel, it is fantastic and I would’ve thought the author was a seasoned author. I have zero complaints about this book.
Let me start by saying that the world building was phenomenal. I could picture everything in my head because of how detailed it was — that’s how good it was written. And I absolutely love the “captive/captor” trope so much, it’s become one of my favorite tropes, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this book had that.
I loved the banter between Rogue and Ara — they’re both snarky and witty, plus with the romantic tension, it made the dialogue that much better. Speaking of romantic tension, yes there is spice but not so much of it that it overrides the plot, which I loved. For me, this would probably be on the 3/5 level of spice.
This book had a ton of plot twists and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2024
★★★★★ 4
High on Tropes and Satisfaction
Format: Kindle
This is a great Romantasy book full of action, adventure, and everything you look for in this genre.
I won’t lie: it does kinda feel like the author found every common trope from every successful book of this kind and threw them all into this novel. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Especially in romance, there’s a large audience who has specific expectations, and they want them every time. Nothing wrong with that and many times I’m one of them.
I have no idea what defines a spoiler honestly, so
spoiler alert!!!!!!!
Tropes include:
Only one bed at the inn/bar
Dissatisfaction with life before hunk appears
Lost royalty
The chosen one
Montage of dress up time followed by shocked hunk
Forbidden romance between two from rival peoples
Power that cannot be controlled, simply guided/asked
Gathering intel at the inn/bar
FMC who knows how to fight/use weapons well
There’s probably more but no need to list them all.
Good story and I would recommend!
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Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Astonishing, Fun, Entertaining, Fantastic
Format: Kindle
I consider The Martian my favorite fictional novel of the last 15-20 years. The movie was incredible in that they actually followed the book closer than 99% of other films based on books. It remains my favorite movie of the last 15 years or so as well. I don't know anyone (personally) that loves either of them as much as I do.
With that said, I was REALLY looking forward to Artemis. It was good...but, it was certainly not in the same caliber as The Martian was (at least not for me). I enjoyed it a lot, however and appreciated how author Andy Weir chose to go in a completely different direction and not just rehash another similar story, which I am certain would have been great as well.
As a result, I was cautious regarding Project Hail Mary. It sounded a little too close to The Martian, but yet, also different in that the circumstances simply could not be more opposite and the stakes so much higher. I'm trying to figure out the best way to summarize without giving too much away from this utterly compelling novel. As I read several reviews, I noticed a recurring theme: SCIENCE. Lots and LOTS of science. Holy cow, they were right. Many years ago I read Apollo 13 and Jim Lovell and his co-writer, try as they might, simply could not dumb down Orbital Mechanics anywhere near enough for me to have even a minor clue as to what they were attempting to say...I just skipped 90% of it and hoped that the sentences written afterwards, would help to make sense of what I had just skimmed over. I'm a lot of things, but a math wizard is definitely not one of them. Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park) had an amazing talent for dumbing-down the science of what he was trying to explain in ways that genuinely made sense (most of the time). Not everyone has this talent, and I would say Andy Weir falls squarely in between. He's certainly better than Jim Lovell, but not quite as good as Crichton. But then again, outside of a science textbook, I haven't really read anything with quite as MUCH science as Project Hail Mary. So maybe he's just as good, but he just puts more science into his books than Crichton, maybe that's it...? Either way, be prepared for a lot of astonishingly interesting science within the pages of this novel...and I DO mean a LOT. I don't say this to make you wary or steer you away...on the contrary, Andy Weir has a special talent for making hard science truly entertaining.
The book opens with an absolutely amazing and frightening premise: an astronaut awakes from an induced coma to find the only other two people on board have died at some point along their journey...but it gets worse. He has no idea who he is, or why he's on the ship, and oh yeah, they look to be a long way from home. A really, REALLY long way from home. In fact, the sun he sees isn't actually OUR sun at all. He's managed to leave our solar system entirely. And he has no idea why.
((Minor Spoilers)) The book goes through some clever flash-backs, which set the stage for why the mission happens, and slowly, carefully explains how they managed to get so far away from earth in such a short amount of time. Basically, earth's sun seems to be dying. At the rate of decay, we have maybe 19 years left before the gradual cooling has catastrophic consequences resulting in the death of billions (best guess). Why the sun is dimming is quite the conundrum in the first place. Turns out it really isn't dying, it's being killed by an outside source...which turns out to be easily the greatest find in history. It's alien life, and they are using the sun for food, essentially. It's alien life, but not intelligent life. But still, wow! ALIENS, right???
After this monumental discovery, and some tremendous research done by the most improbable scientist, the investigation into what is happening and why and what to do about it expands exponentially to other nations in order to pool all the resources possible to hopefully save the sun, and by extension, the human race as well. They learn. A LOT. A plan is put together, and with the help of the newly discovered microscopic alien life, which can also double as a power source (along with a few other nifty surprises), they begin to create one last, Hail Mary that could very well be the last chance we might have to save earth. It's audacious. It's dangerous, and it is absolutely critical that it succeed.
As our astronaut's memory slowly unravels, so does his identity: Ryland Grace. He's a teacher on earth. Just a science teacher. Not even a college professor. He's amazingly smart, though. But he's no astronaut...and certainly not one who would volunteer to go on a one-way mission to another solar system to "try" and save humanity. Yet here he is. Alone. light years from earth, trying to solve the biggest riddle in all of human history. Ryland accepts his situation, such as it is, with relative indifference (for the most part). It doesn't matter HOW he got here. He's here now and he may as well use that time to be as productive as possible, right? Along the way, he unravels even more information regarding the microscopic alien life which is slowly dimming our sun during some additional flashbacks. The aliens, dubbed, "Astrophage" are quite the galactic plague as it turns out. Stars all over the galaxy are also losing their light, all due to the little buggers. All that is, except one particular star named, Tau Ceti. Now why would that one star be unaffected by Astrophage, when every single star around it has been affected to some degree. The plan is to go there and figure it out and send the information back, hopefully in time to save the sun before the damage to earth is beyond repair.
There is an incredible amount of stuff going on. The story switches from Tau Ceti to flashbacks of how the whole mission was planned and implemented (which is VERY entertaining, especially Director Stratt, who may actually be my favorite character in the entire novel). Weir is becoming quite adept at building tension, and abruptly switching the story from Tau Ceti back to earth and building more of the backstory then switching back to Tau Ceti. Keeping it all in check and most importantly, interesting all while mixing in a healthy dose of science, which I am to understand is pretty much all genuine, is quite the juggling act. I have long known science can be astronomically entertaining (see what I did there?) when done right...but unfortunately very few people in a position to teach science actually know the best way to create that interest in others. I can say without reservation, Andy Weir definitely knows how to do it...at least in written form.
There is so much I want to say more regarding this truly phenomenal story, but I simply cannot without ruining a lot of the fun and surprises revealed along the way...and it is killing me to keep it locked in. Though I labeled a spoiler warning earlier, I don't think it gave away any more than what the author himself has revealed in interviews he has done regarding the book, and what you can glean from reading the summary here and just a couple other reviews. Tying all of that science together is truly astonishing to me. The creativity to put it into a novel that is remarkably exciting to read is nothing more than incredible talent. Kudo's to Andy Weir for not just hitting a home run, Project Hail Mary is a Grand Slam all the way. I truly did not want this story to end. By the way, I enjoyed the ending quite a bit. I don't know if everyone will. But it was fine for me. I think the ending screams "sequel" at some point too. A lot was left open-ended (IMO) and I wouldn't mind reading a follow-up to this. It doesn't HAVE to happen, but there are a lot of ways where the story could go if Andy chose to do it. Just sayin'.
Just run out and buy this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2021
★★★★★ 5
Wonderful
Format: Kindle
The amount of detail in this book is so interesting and the specifics of so much theoretical ideas revolving around true ideas makes it so fun to read. The writer does a great job and describing every situation enough where you get the point but not too much to try to bore you . The book is very easy to follow, keeps you on your toes, was pretty funny to me, and truthfully just a great book for anyone!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2026
★★★★★ 4
Read it in 2 days
Format: Paperback
This is science based science fiction. How refreshing to read science without turning the story into horror. Without a plethora of characters, it is easy to remember who is who. The story moves along well enough that I wanted to keep going. It us a p age turner in many respects.
All this said, there were too many crises suddenly resolved like some Star Trek episode from 1966. It reached the point where I said to myself, "OK, this doesn't matter. Move along, nothing to see here."
There was good humor, some surprising twists, and enough involvement with characters that I didn't want to put it down.
As science fiction goes, it was good like pulp stories go. It wasn't like Ursula LeGuin or Robert Heinlein but I would probably pick up the next book he writes.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2026