This book was written to span the gap between the left and right, the present and the future, the obvious and the hidden, and beliefs and proof. The author spends certain evenings with people of great passion and intellect to find what everyone can agree to support.
Carl believes that one must master four interactions to be successful in life. Self vs Self (psychology), Self vs Others (philosophy), Self vs Science (the known) and Self vs Theology (the unknown). This is one of the vignettes.
Carl also believes that the world has become separated in ways that it hasn't experienced before and in ways designed to degrade our existing biological heuristics without our even knowing it. This is a theme of the book that is not expressed.