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

by Sean Carroll

Poetic naturalism strikes a middle ground, accepting that values are human constructs, but denying that they are therefore illusory or meaningless.

What matters to life is that our environment here on Earth is very far from equilibrium, and will be for billions of years. The sun is a hot spot in a cold sky. Because of that, the energy we receive in the form of solar photons is almost entirely free energy, ready to be turned into useful work.