The Big Picture

On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself

In The Big Picture, Sean Carroll ties together the fundamental laws of physics governing the workings of the cosmos with the everyday human experience we all share. The book takes us on a breathtaking journey from the origin of the universe, through the evolution of life and consciousness, to the eternal question of what it all really means.

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"From the Big Bang to the meaning of human existence, The Big Picture is exactly that— a magisterial, yet deeply fascinating, grand tour through the issues that really matter. Blending science and philosophy, Sean Carroll gives us a humane perspective on the universe and our place in it. As gripping as it is important, The Big Picture can change the way you think about the world."
—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish

The Book The Author Index Blurbs Contact

The Book

Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on Higgs bosons and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?

In short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level--and then how each connects to the other. Carroll's presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique.

Carroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.

The Big Picture is an unprecedented scientific worldview, a tour de force that will sit on shelves alongside the works of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, and E. O. Wilson for years to come.

The Author

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in 1993 from Harvard University. Recently, Carroll has worked on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the arrow of time, and the emergence of complexity. His other books include From Eternity to Here: the Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time and The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World, as well as the textbook Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity.

Carroll has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Sloan Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of London, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Carroll has appeared on The Colbert Report, PBS’s NOVA, and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, and he frequently serves as a science consultant for film and television. He has been interviewed by various NPR shows, Scientific American, Wired, and The New York Times. He has given a TED talk on the multiverse that has more than one million views, and he has participated in a number of well-attended public debates concerning material in his new book.

Index

0. Prologue

* Part One: Cosmos

1. The Fundamental Nature of Reality
2. Poetic Naturalism
3. The World Moves By Itself
4. What Determines What Will Happen Next?
5. Reasons Why
6. Our Universe
7. Time’s Arrow
8. Memories and Causes

* Part Two: Understanding

9. Learning About the World
10. Updating Our Knowledge
11. Is It Okay to Doubt Everything?
12. Reality Emerges
13. What Exists, and What Is Illusion?
14. Planets of Belief
15. Accepting Uncertainty
16. What Can We Know About the Universe Without Looking at It?
17. Who Am I?
18. Abducting God

* Part Three: Essence

19. How Much We Know
20. The Quantum Realm
21. Interpreting Quantum Mechanics
22. The Core Theory
23. The Stuff of Which We Are Made
24. The Effective Theory of the Everyday World
25. Why Does the Universe Exist?
26. Body and Soul
27. Death Is the End

* Part Four: Complexity

28. The Universe in a Cup of Coffee
29. Light and Life
30. Funneling Energy
31. Spontaneous Organization
32. The Origin and Purpose of Life
33. Evolution’s Bootstraps
34. Searching Through the Landscape
35. Emergent Purpose
36. Are We the Point?

* Part Five: Thinking

37. Crawling Into Consciousness
38. The Babbling Brain
39. What Thinks?
40. The Hard Problem
41. Zombies and Stories
42. Are Photons Conscious?
43. What Acts on What?
44. Freedom to Choose

* Part Six: Caring

45. Three Billion Heartbeats
46. What Is and What Ought to Be
47. Rules and Consequences
48. Constructing Goodness
49. Listening to the World
50. Existential Therapy

Appendix: The Equation Underlying You and Me
Acknowledgments
Further Reading
References
Index

Blurbs

"With profound intelligence and a lucid unpretentious language, Sean Carroll beautifully articulates the world view suggested by contemporary naturalism. Thorny issues like free will, the direction of time, and the source of meaning and morality are clarified with elegance and insight. The Big Picture shows how the scientific worldview enriches our understanding of the universe and ourselves. A reliable account of our knowledge of the universe, it is also a serene meditation on our need for meaning. This is a book that should be read by everybody."
--Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons in Physics

“Carroll is the perfect guide on this wondrous journey of discovery. A brilliantly lucid exposition of profound philosophical and scientific issues in a language accessible to lay readers.”
--Kirkus (starred review)

“In this timely exploration of the universe and its mysteries—both physical and metaphysical—Sean Carroll illuminates the world around us with clarity, beauty and, ultimately, with much needed wisdom.”
—Deborah Blum, director, Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook

“Sean Carroll is a leading theoretical cosmologist with the added ability to write about his subject with unusual clarity, flare, and wit.”
—Alan Lightman, author of The Accidental Universe and Einstein’s Dreams

“Language philosophy, quantum mechanics, general relativity—they’re all in The Big Picture. Sean Carroll is a fantastically erudite and entertaining writer.”
—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of New York Times bestseller The Sixth Extinction

“Weaving the threads of astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and philosophy into a seamless narrative tapestry, Sean Carroll enthralls us with what we’ve figured out in the universe and humbles us with what we don’t yet understand. Yet in the end, it’s the meaning of it all that feeds your soul of curiosity.”
—Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

"Until now you might have gotten away believing modern physics is about things either too small or too far away to care much about. But no more. Sean Carroll’s new book reveals how physicists’ quest to better understand the fundamental laws of nature has lead to astonishing insights into life, the universe, and everything."
—Sabine Hossenfelder, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies

"Instead of feeling humbled and insignificant when gazing upward on a clear starry night, Carroll takes us by the hand and shows us how fantastic the inanimate physical Universe is and how special each animate human can be. It is lucid, spirited, and penetrating."
—Michael Gazzaniga, author of Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain

“From the Big Bang to the meaning of human existence, The Big Picture is exactly that— a magisterial, yet deeply fascinating, grand tour through the issues that really matter. Blending science and philosophy, Sean Carroll gives us a humane perspective on the universe and our place in it. As gripping as it is important, The Big Picture can change the way you think about the world.”
—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish

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The Big Picture

On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself

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