Apparently the author is a science writer (makes sense), and it’s his first book:
I’m a freelance science writer. Until January 2018 I was science writer for BuzzFeed UK; before that, I was a comment and features writer for the Telegraph, having joined in 2007. My first book, The Rationalists: AI and the geeks who want to save the world, for Weidenfeld & Nicolson, is due to be published spring 2019. Since leaving BuzzFeed, I’ve written for the Times, the i, the Telegraph, UnHerd, politics.co.uk, and elsewhere.
Apparently the author is a science writer (makes sense), and it’s his first book:
https://tomchivers.com/about/