The big picture : on the origins of life, meaning, and the universe itself /

"The award-winning Caltech physicist and author of The Particle at the End of the Universe shares sweeping perspectives into how human purpose and meaning naturally fit into a scientific worldview,"--Amazon.com.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carroll, Sean M., 1966- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York, New York : Dutton, [2016]
Subjects:
Online Access:Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Table of Contents:
  • The fundamental nature of reality
  • Poetic naturalism
  • The world moves by itself
  • What determines what will happen next?
  • Reasons why
  • Our universe
  • Time's arrow
  • Memories and causes
  • Learning about the world
  • Updating our knowledge
  • Is it okay to doubt everything?
  • Reality emerges
  • What exists, and what is illusion?
  • Planets of belief
  • Accepting uncertainty
  • What can we know about the world without actually looking at it?
  • Who am I?
  • Abducting God
  • How much we know
  • The quantum realm
  • Interpreting quantum mechanics
  • The core theory
  • The stuff of which we are made
  • The effective theory of the everyday world
  • Why does the universe exist?
  • Body and soul
  • Death is the end
  • The universe in a cup of coffee
  • Light and life
  • Funneling energy
  • Spontaneous organization
  • The origin and purpose of life
  • Evolution's bootstraps
  • Searching through the landscape
  • Emergent purpose
  • Are we the point?
  • Crawling into consciousness
  • The babbling brain
  • What thinks?
  • The hard problem
  • Zombies and stories
  • Are photons conscious?
  • What acts on what?
  • Freedom to choose
  • Three billion heartbeats
  • What is and what ought to be
  • Rules and consequences
  • Constructing goodness
  • Listening to the world
  • Existential therapy.