Evolutionary dramas -- Do science and religion compete? -- Demarcation disputes -- The irresistible escalator -- Choosing a world -- The problem of direction -- Scientist and superscientist -- Dazzling prospects -- Black holes: Jacques Monod and the isolation of 'science' -- Freedom and the Monte Carlo drama -- Scientific education and human transience -- Mixed antitheses -- Science, scepticism and awe -- The service of self and the service of Kali -- Who or what is selfish? -- Dreaming and waking -- The limits of individualism -- The vulnerable world and its claims on us.