{"id":11988,"date":"2014-05-27T17:22:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T00:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/?p=11988"},"modified":"2014-05-28T05:23:38","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T12:23:38","slug":"the-meaning-of-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-meaning-of-life-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meaning of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been a crappy blogger, and I blame real life for getting in the way. (No, that’s not the meaning of life.) I keep meaning to say something more substantial about the BICEP2 controversy — in the meantime check out Raphael Flauger’s talk<\/a>, Matias Zaldarriaga’s talk<\/a> (slides<\/a>), this paper by Mortonson and Seljak<\/a>, or this blog post by Richard Easther<\/a>. <\/p>\n

At least I have been a productive scientist! One paper on the expected amount of inflation<\/a> with Grant Remmen, and one on the evolution of complexity in closed systems<\/a> with Scott Aaronson and Lauren Ouellette (no relation to Jennifer<\/a>). Promise to blog about them soon.<\/p>\n

But not too soon, as I’m about to hop on airplanes again: first for the World Science Festival<\/a>, then for the Cheltenham Science Festival<\/a>. (Cheltenham is actually part of the world, but the two festivals are quite different.) Note that at the WSF, our session on Quantum Physics and Reality<\/a> (with Brian Greene, David Albert, Sheldon Goldstein, and Ruediger Schack, Thursday at 8pm Eastern) will be live-streamed<\/a>. Maybe the Science and Story<\/a> event (with Steven Pinker, Jo Marchant, Joyce Carol Oates, and E.L. Doctorow, Thursday at 5:30 Eastern) will be also, I don’t know. <\/p>\n

So, in lieu of original content, here is seven minutes of me pronouncing sonorously on the meaning of life. This is from a debate<\/a> I participated in with Michael Shermer, Dinesh D’Souza, and Ian Hutchinson (not the Greer-Heard Forum debate with William Lane Craig<\/a>, as I originally thought). I talked about how naturalists find meaning in our finite lives, without any guidance from the outside world.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
SEAN CARROLL - The Meaning of Life<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>