Update 12: It's (Digital) Launch Day!

How to read DoF for free, and remembering launch day.

Author

Tom Williams
January 14, 2026

Hi friend, 

At Long Last!


MIT Press faced an “unprecedented” problem with their Open Access pipeline, resulting in a five week delay, but at long last you can read Degrees of Freedom for free on the MIT Press Website! If you’re just here for the link, have at it. Otherwise, read on to hear about the launch event — and where you can hear me speak if you missed it!

Digital Edition

The book’s homepage on the MIT Press website will still need a day or two to link to it, but the Open Access Page is up here. From the OA page, you can either download the Book PDF (direct link), or you can download specific chapters. Note that if you’re an educator assigning an individual chapter PDF, you’ll also need the notes and bibliography for that chapter, which are separate downloads farther down on the page.

Book Launch

I’m happy to say that I had a wonderful launch event last month at The Shop at Matter in Denver. After a short talk on the book, I was joined by discussant Bryan Semaan for a great interview and Q/A, with the night capped by the enactment of an improvised science fiction novel by the Subtext Improv Bookclub.

If you missed it (but live in Denver) the good news is that I’ll be giving a full one-hour talk on the book 2/12 at 7PM at Lady Justice Brewing in Englewood, as part of The Social Study. Unfortunately that event isn’t free, but the (digital) book is at least! Tickets can be found here.

If you missed it (and don’t live in Denver) stay tuned for more details of my East Coast book tour this March!

Who Needs a Laugh?

Finally, let me use this opportunity to share with you a new project I’m spinning up! Starting in February, on First Fridays I’ll be running ROBOT RIOT: A robot comedy event that involves comedy about (and involving!) robots, that seeks to raise awareness about Robot Ethics issues. The first one is February 6 ay 7PM at RISE Comedy, with a premiere pre-show party where we’ll have a “robot zoo” and beer from Little Machine Brewing. Hope to see some of you there!

Remind me, where can I get Degrees of Freedom?

Source

Print

PDF

Bookshop.org

$90

NA

MIT Press

$75.00

$0

Penguin Random House

$60.00 (with code READMIT20)

NA

Thanks for reading,

Tom

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For more information on Tom Williams, visit his personal website at tomwilliams.phd

For more information on Tom’s lab, visit MIRRORLab.mines.edu