Book Review:The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carrol

The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carrol

Hardcover, 480 pages

Published May 2016 by Dutton

I was overdue for reading this book, earlier in the year I discovered Sean Carrol's podcast Mindscape. I enjoy the podcast quite a bit. It is basically this super smart Caltech theoretical physicist talking to other smart people. The episodes are hit or miss for me depending on the guest but when I saw the title of this book I knew I have to read it. I love cosmology and the big picture, I know I understand these things better than I should. One of the highlights of my year was when Dr. Brian Keating in my Dickheads interview with him told me I had missed my calling as physicist. Yeah the whole sucking at math thing prevented that, but I love thinking about these cosmic issues.

Dr. Keating himself called this book "Poetry for Physicists", and the writing is indeed very deep and profound. Carrol tackles the meaning of life from basic thought to the creation of the universe. To say this book is mind expanding is really selling the experience short. It is funny to me that books that explore history, culture and politics are often called must reads, and yet most books that explore the very existence and meaning of life from a scientific perspective rarely are.

Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking might be the last time, but unlike that book I think the Big Picture is much easier book to get a handle on. This book has better chance to be understood if people give it the chance. Sean Carrol not only explains the science, but gives it relatable human meaning.

“Poetic naturalism is a philosophy of freedom and responsibility. The raw materials of life are given to us by the natural world, and we must work to understand them and accept the consequences. The move from description to prescription, from saying what happens to passing judgment on what should happen, is a creative one, a fundamentally human act. The world is just the world, unfolding according to the patterns of nature, free of any judgmental attributes. The world exists; beauty and goodness are things that we bring to it.”

Keep in mind that the chapter on Poetic Naturalism begins with a discussion of the Richard Matheson written episode of Star Trek the Enemy Within and the ethic of cloning via the Transporter. That is more fun than sticking to straight forward academic theory. That was the first of several parts that took the book to a different level for me. Some times it is something fun like that then other times it was intense ideas.

Even when I disagreed with him I liked that he got me thinking...

“The trick is to think of life as a process rather than a substance. When a candle is burning, there is a flame that clearly carries energy. When we put the candle out, the energy doesn’t “go” anywhere. The candle still contains energy in its atoms and molecules. What happens, instead, is that the process of combustion has ceased. Life is like that: it’s not “stuff”; it’s a set of things happening. When that process stops, life ends.”

When the candle flame is put out the smell of the wax often floats in the room, I refuse to believe that when the process of our bodies stops that the things that make up our spirit ends. I like that this book prompted me to think so intensely on the subject.

After all this science the Big Picture ends with a very human chapter.

“The idea of “Ten Commandments” is a deeply compelling one. It combines two impulses that are ingrained in our nature as human beings: making lists of ten things, and telling other people how to behave.”

So instead Carrol ends with Ten Considerations number 9 really struck a chord with me. "We can do better than Happines." Creativity, art, knowledge, activism. Your existence in this massive universe is kinda of a miracle, and there is nothing spiritual about that. I am talking cold rational science. You are damn lucky to be here, and damn lucky to have a cool book like this to prompt how you think about that universe. Yeah read this one.