Erik P. Hoel is a scientist, fiction writer, and essayist. He works as a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biological sciences at Columbia University, in Rafael Yuste’s neurotechnology lab. He is also a periodic visitor at The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was previously a graduate student in the Center for Sleep and Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where his research was funded by the John Templeton Foundation as part of its research on Science and the Big Questions.