In the 1940s a bohemian band of passionate and precocious thinkers began to try to build a mechanistic model of the brain and mind. In her Nautilus story “The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic,” Amanda Gefter explores the brief, bright-burning life of Walter Pitts, one of the central figures of the movement—and one of the most troubled. Here, find an annotated version of Gefter’s award-winning piece, plus an interview with Gefter about how she brought the story to life.