Physics has shown that every action will propagate an equal and opposite reaction. This has been proven true in the physical, inanimate world; and this knowledge has been applied to great advantage in the manipulation of energy and materials. Complex series of events can be finely controlled with this knowledge, for example, to perform work and facilitate communication.  

 It is temping to assume that the same physical laws apply to the realm of the living, and to use these assumptions in our understanding of human life and culture. It certainly seems the laws should apply, since life forms are physical entities also, and they are comprised of what is essentially inanimate, physical material. But in fact you may observe that in the realm of the living, each action does not result in an equal and opposite reaction. In actuality, the reverse is true: exchanges among living beings are not equal. Exchanges among living beings and living systems are never equal.  
  
 In the case of an individual being – a microbe, a worm, an armadillo, an accountant or a cheerleader – the entire functioning unit is made from commonly available materials, mostly water plus some other elements and compounds which can probably be found in your backyard. But the  combination of these materials – when they organize into a living being –equals more than the sum of the substances that comprise it. The “spark of life” that distinguishes a living being from its mere physical components cannot be explained by physical mechanics.  

 And what of the interactions between living beings? Again, observe for yourself: we living beings do not interact on a grid of equal and opposite consequences. Instead, the myriad exchanges between living creatures most often precipitate erratic consequences that range from subtle to paradoxical to apparently absurd, in which the sum of the interactions do not cancel out neatly, as they do in physics. The examples spin endlessly, everywhere you look. A thousand plankton die a horrible suffocation-by-stomach-acid, but to the whale it’s only one bite in a long meal. A lioness drains the life from the neck of an innocent gazelle – for the gazelle, this one life is all there is; but for the pride of lions, it’s only brunch al fresco. Does the whale “pay for” the millions of deaths he caused in his lifetime and does the lion suffer retribution for what she did to the balletic gazelle? What about the pain they caused?  

 In the realm of people, many around the world work hard and acquire no wealth while others work not at all and live like royalty. On a more subtle level, in the social realm, some people virtually spend a lifetime giving kindness while others only demand it. The examples are endless. But the point is this: in the realm of life, on any level from career-sized efforts to random social exchanges, human intercourse does not result in “no net gain.” Almost any exchange you can isolate (between parent and child; husband and wife; employer and employee; criminal and victim; artist and viewer; shopkeeper and shopper; and on and on) will show lopsided results.  

 So we have a dichotomy: living beings are made of material that obeys the laws of physics, but the living beings themselves do not seem to obey the same laws that govern the material of which they are made. How can this be? Let’s look at this dichotomy at the most essential level.  

 Energy can be characterized as the power of motion in the universe, and without it the universe would be static. But energy by itself has no value, because with energy alone, nothing obtains.  

 And matter is what allows us to have “stuff” in the universe, but left to itself, it would all just be a lump of stuff sitting there and again – nothing would happen.  

 To reduce this comparison to the bones:  
 Energy has no conscience. It’s just as happy to destroy as it is to create. It only cares that something’s happening.  

 Matter has no energy. It doesn’t care if anything is happening as long as it doesn’t get hurt.  

 The universe, to be the universe we know and love, needs them both. It needs energy and matter, as well as time and space, in order to be a universe in which stuff happens! And for a long time, “stuff happening”  would be sufficient. So matter and energy slugged it out in the universe, trading blow-by-reducible-blow in an endless exchange.  

 But let’s face it, folks, after five or ten billion years of matter and energy slugging it out (in admittedly spectacular galactic exchanges), what do you have to show for it? On the physical level, you have no net gain! You have the two heavyweights, matter and energy, trading blow-by-equal-blow; only to wind up more or less where they started. And if you were the universe, wouldn’t an infinity of equivalencies grow tiresome at long last? Wouldn’t you yearn for some new outcome?  

 “So,” said the Universe, “Let there be some other way for matter and energy to connect.” Voila! Life is the answer to this yearning. Life can be seen as the medium in which matter and energy reproduce in a new way; the new medium which obeys laws other than those in physics. The new laws of life are more complex and less rigid laws of exchange, and the results of exchanges among the living are therefore less predictable than exchanges among the non-living. Life is the medium in which exchanges are not equal, and for this Life adds new possibility to the universe because in the medium of life you will find the possibility of net gain. It is possible for living systems to become more than what they were, whereas non-living systems cannot.  

 While perhaps this sketch of life-in-the-universe may hold interest or spur debate for some, does it actually bear in any relevant way on how one might best live a human life? Consider this…  

 Just as life represents a new opportunity for the mechanical universe, so too does human consciousness represent a new growth-opportunity for life itself.  

 Other living beings fulfill an important but simple mission: to stay alive, and by living they automatically do their proper part for the wheels of life. When an animal has enough to eat and a safe place to sleep, he “has arrived.” This is it. This is success. But when humans have enough to eat and a safe place to call home, only then do they commence the activity of “being human,” for the human mission begins exactly where the animal mission is fulfilled.  

 In terms of the brief discussion here, consider it thusly: every life form has its special domain – worms digest dirt, whales transform plankton, eagles pick mice out of the forest – and human beings collectively cultivate win/win situations. In a broad sense, that’s what civilization addresses, and by the same broad measure that’s how success can be  assayed in one human life.  

 In cultures around the world, certain edicts have been developed, preserved and obeyed. You could say that every civilization worth its salt has some form of The Ten Commandments. Why? Because these rules work. The rules enhance net gain. The rules are needed because energy has no conscience. Without those rules, energy would dissipate soon after it gathers, and civilization would come and go like weather systems. But The Rules safeguard the energy from easy dissipation, so that human civilization in toto may organize and grow over time; that it may survive to grope for ever-richer consequences.  

 Even though these rules have been historically ascribed to god, it may now be seen that the rules are really what works for life itself. The Rules shepherd behavior and exchanges towards whatever works to tilt the unequal consequences of living systems in favor of the positive, the constructive, the most useful.  

 Accordingly, as the scope of human life expands, the ancient rules may still have value. But each incremental expansion of one person or an entire civilization begs the need for newer, subtler guidelines (as conduits) so that the internal life and the external life may continue to refine their net gains – that is, to make something more out of something less.  

 In the most profound sense, then, you make your own rules as you go along. Or else you won’t go very far along. If you make your rules well, you will benefit. And so will civilization. And so will life. And so will the universe. They’re all linked together. You and the universe are the far ends of the same funnel.