Not only does God play dice with the Universe - he sometimes casts them where they can't be seen. — Stephen Hawking. English theoretical physicist (1942–2018)
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?