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Reading The Big Picture: Part Two

In part six of The Big Picture physicist Sean Carroll completes his skillful journey from the molecular basis of the cosmos to the inherent possibilities for human caring for each other and for our world.  It turns out that this very real (but emergent) human phenomenon is something built into the mechanics of physics finding diverse expression in animal form. "In human terms, the dynamic nature of life manifests itself as desire.  There is always something we want, even if what we want is to break free of the bonds of desire.  That's not a sustainable goal; to stay alive, we have to eat, drink, breathe, metabolize, and generally continue to ride the wave of increasing entropy. "Desire has a bad reputation in certain circles, but that's a bum rap.  Curiosity is a form of desire; so are helpfulness and artistic drive. Desire is an aspect of caring: about ourselves, about other people, about what happens to the world. "People are not inanimate rocks, accept

Reading The Big Picture: Part One

Physicist Sean Carroll presents a strong case for interpreting reality through what he calls "poetic naturalism" in his philosophic work The Big Picture , published earlier this year. I finished reading it just before I went to Swan Cabin but wanted to rethink various parts of the book before blogging about it.  In a nutshell, Carroll argues (persuasively, in my opinion) that the best evidence suggests our private experience is a poor way to approach an honest appraisal of our place in the universe.  It is better to be skeptical of any and all interpretations of reality, put our personal creeds to the test of facts based in physical reality, and still find meaning in our lives despite the fact that poetic naturalism does not grant humanity any special status in the universe. Instead of starting out with a belief that human beings are special or important in the cosmic scheme of things, poetic naturalism sees our humanity as "emergent" from the laws of physics.