The big picture : on the origins of life, meaning, and the universe itself
Publication Information
New York, New York : Dutton, [2016]
Physical Description
ix, 470 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
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 universe without 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
- Billion heartbeats
- What is and what ought to be
- Rules and consequences
- Constructing goodness
- Listening to the world
- Existential therapy.