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

by Sean Carroll

An obvious place where it’s tempting to look for reasons why is the question of why various features of the universe take the form that they do. Why was the entropy low near the Big Bang? Why are there three dimensions of space? Why is the proton almost 2,000 times heavier than the electron? Why does the universe exist at all? These are very different questions from “Why is there an accordion in my bathtub?” We’re no longer asking about occurrences, so “Because of the laws of physics and the prior configuration of the universe” isn’t a good answer. Now we’re trying to figure out why the fundamental fabric of reality is one way rather than some other way. The secret here is to accept that such questions may or may not have answers. We have every right to ask them, but we have no right at all to demand an answer that will satisfy us. We have to be open to the possibility that they are brute facts, and that’s just how things are.