Assuming that a scientific theory of everything could predict all, including when and how such a theory would be discovered, as well as when and how you’d be reading my website, one could argue that the concept of free will is irrelevant.
However, even scientists agree that free will exists and that it is inherently unpredictable. If this is true then how could a thing such a free will exist in a universe that can be explained by a theory of everything? This paradox, in my opinion, is where the theory about how the meaning of life can be explained entirely by physics begins to break down. In order to account for this discrepancy, I propose another model: love. This is because love is, as we know, inherently unpredictable and imprecise and so does not appear to conform to the laws of nature. All you need to do to understand this is to bring any two or more subjects to gather, allow them to interact and fall in love (or not), and the results you will achieve will never be exactly the same. The model including love must necessarily transcend the limits imposed by the laws of nature. Even if I accept the concept that God is not necessary to create our universe, I can still believe it is love that gives it meaning.
It is love that gives us the sense there is something out there greater than ourselves in which we can believe. To find proof of this, I need not look any further than into the eyes belonging to the person who is now, and shall always be, the most important to me in my life. What I see there is all the reason I will ever need to know my life has meaning and I am where I belong. Without this person I would continue to just exist, but I would never be exactly sure why.
It is, therefore, love that will ultimately be responsible for unifying the theory of everything with the meaning of life and for motivating us to want to further understand our universe. It is doubtful that love will ever be observed in the Large Hadron Collider, although I suppose machines need love too. Nevertheless, love’s effects can be observed every day as we look around us and appreciate love as the most elegant element in the human condition.