Life, by contrast with inert matter, is usually regarded as essentially busy, active, and dynamic. But maybe life is not different from inert matter. Perhaps life, just like inert matter, does the minimum - and we would gain a deeper understanding of life if we saw it not as trying to busy itself, but seeking to be idle. Perhaps human life, human society, technology, ethics, law, and religion have all arisen as an attempt to minimize effort. If so, the imperative of all life, and of human life, would not be 'Keep Busy' and 'Do Something', but 'Keep Still' and 'Do Nothing'. This is the speculation of Idle Theory. Central to Idle Theory is a physical understanding of life as alternating between two states: busy and idle. While busy, a living creature works to maintain itself. While idle, it is either inactive or engaged in some non-maintenance activity. Depending upon their physical constitution and the environment in which they find themselves, all liv...