★★★☆☆ | Science | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
This collection of essays makes a rational and persuasive argument for a material universe, and by implication means that our lives are meaningless blinks in an eternity of unthinking time and space. You get the feeling that Lightman wishes it were otherwise (like us all), but wants to lay it out as he sees it.
The question always comes back around to how we should live, what is the purpose of life in an Accidental Universe. Lightman advises to enjoy the moment and the incredible luck we have at being alive at all:
I might as well live in such a way as to maximize my pleasure and minimize my pain. Accordingly, I try to eat delicious food, to support my family, to create beautiful things, and to help those less fortunate than myself—because those activities bring me pleasure. Likewise, I try to avoid leading a dull life, avoid personal anarchy, and avoid hurting others because those activities bring me pain. That is how I should live.
We humans living on our one planet wring our hands about the brevity of our lives and our mortal restraints, but we do not often think about how improbable it is to be alive at all. Of all the zillions of atoms and molecules in the universe, we have the privilege of being composed of those very, very few atoms that have joined together in the special arrangement to make living matter. We exist in that one-billionth of one-billionth. We are that one grain of sand in the desert.
Wanderlust Gene: Researchers have recently discovered a variation (allele) of a gene called DRD4-7R—or more arrestingly, “the wanderlust gene.” It occurs in about 20 percent of the population and appears to be associated with a penchant for exploration and risk. (Location 1372) Might Connor have possessed this particular genetic “feature”?
The number of neurons in our brain is about equal to the number of stars in a galaxy: one hundred billion.