Why does the universe exist? Universe shouldn’t exist, CERN physicists conclude: https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/universe-shouldn-t-exist-cern-physicists-conclude [Maybe it doesn't? There's a lot of discussion out there that the entire universe and our lives are part of an alien computer ogram. We are like ants in a glass box going about our business without realizing we are a high school project of some other alien culture. On the other hand maybe the universe exists because it had to? Like life, if the conditions are right wouldn't it happen anywhere and everywhere? Another theory is that we are just one of parallel universes and when they come in contact with each other new one spring up? Celestial reproduction? I thing the universe exists but why? I don't know. What do you think?] -------------------------------------------------------------- "libido sciendi"..... the passion to know.
I believe in exists because of my own self consciousness and we can see it all around us. Whether or not we are just one of many parallel universes I have no idea. Why it exists? I think that it just does and we just so happen to live in it. I'm pretty sure it would still exist even if we didn't. The Earth exists because a bunch of gas and dust clumped together around a young star billions of years ago and we just happen to be here now. I don't particularly think there is a specific reason for any of the universe to be there it just is. Sort of like how the Earth, in spite of what so many want so desperately to believe, isn't exactly special. It's special to us because we live here but in the grand scheme of things it's just another planet orbiting a random ordinary star in a random part of a perfectly normal and non unique galaxy. I used to sit and ponder if other life exists in the Universe and basically conclude that it had to because the universe is so mind mindbogglingly enormous beyond human comprehension that it wouldn't make logical sense for the rest of it to be there for no reason. Then I stopped and thought....well yeah actually it would. There's nothing that says the universe has to exist for some specific reason and nothing that says something should only exist if there is an entity with a self consciousness to be aware of it. There is so much in the universe that Earth based humans will never see, let alone visit, yet they are still there. Plus the Universe as a whole operates with 100% complete disregard for the fact that little ol Earth is here with us humans pointing our telescopes up and looking at it. The Sun could belch out a massive solar flare tomorrow and kill us all and it wouldn't make any difference to the universe and it would still continue to be there. Just like it will still continue to be there when we are all dead. So if the universe as a whole exists simply because this little blue planet of ours is here and we can look at it then that wouldn't make any logical sense to my brain unless there was something else to all of this. But then again in the wise words of one Neil Degrasse Tyson "The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you".
You should ask a hard one. The universe exists so I can have a place to experience my existence. Totally self referential. It started when I was born and it will end when I die.
I prefer to think this is a virtual reality created by something analogous to a infinite super computer outside this universe. And the reason we ended up with more matter than antimatter is the program the computer ran in order that we might have a universe in the first place. But everything at its core is digital info. Oh, the analogous super computer is consciousness. Matter, time space manifest from consciousness. When consciousness within the universe perceives the universe, it also changes it. You can only see this happen at the foundation of reality, the quantum level. This is the Rosetta stone which implicates consciousness is fundamental.
It should be noted that "why" is not a question for science. Science asks what and how; and seeks to develop mathematical models that produce results consistent with observations. "Why" is a philosophical question.
Thanks. I watched around half of it and will finish it up later. I wish they would have had that arrogant Krause on the panel so he could be put into his place. Or anyone who has turned assumptions into little more than dogma. Unquestionable dogma. Yet these scientists were intellectually honest enough, most of them, to keep an open mind as scientists are supposed to do, unlike some of our esteemed members here. Who then use science as their sledge hammer of certainty in a most unscientific manner.
Agree why is more a philosophical question. How did the universe begin? What mechanics derived it? What theory/mathematical model best explains that?
If the universe IS a simulation in some superdupercomputer, then does it exist at all? The most intellectually pleasing hypothesis I've heard comes from String Theory. The universe once existed as an 11-dimensional hyper surface. Due to some event, it collapsed into the 3+1 dimensional universe we observe, with the other dimensions manifesting as the fundamental forces of nature. That event is what we have deduced to be the Big Bang. With this explanation, the universe always existed. So the problem of something coming from nothing goes away.
But the idea of universes bubbling up from the quantum foam is appealing as well. This allows for millions of failed universes for each one that succeeds - where matter can form. This might explain how we got so lucky that the physical constants are seemingly tuned, so matter can exist. It may just be the luck of the draw from an infinite deck.
On the other hand, there are many aspects of quantum mechanics that are more consistent with peer-to-peer communications, than physical laws. The idea of a simulated universe is tempting. The quantum world really does act like a computer simulation. But it is also possible that the universe is at the deepest level computational, so it mimics the behavior of computers. It isn't necessary that we are all a simulation. What makes the simulation argument interesting is the logic: It can be argued that it is likely that most universes are being simulated in advanced computers throughout the real universe - that it is what we are doing right now with games and research at a far less sophisticated level. And this is what we expect other advanced species to do. In a universe billions of years older than our species, with perhaps billions of other races far more advanced than us, where the vast majority of universes are arguably simulated, ours is likely simulated. The odds are than any given universe you choose, is simulated. For every real universe, there may be trillions of simulated universes. But then if our universe is simulated, we don't know what the real universe is like or the real laws of nature. The real kicker for me, the icing on the cake is this: More and more we have come to realize that information is the most fundamental concept. Energy, momentum, mass, the forces of nature, can all be viewed as manifestations of information. The solution to the Maxwell's Demon paradox is the key pointer here. Energy is conserved through the information the demon requires to make the decision. So along with the philosophical argument that the universe could be nothing more than information, physics is telling us the same thing.
If there was an event that caused the 11-dimensional universe to "collapse" into the 3+1 we observe, could it happen again? Might the 3+1 collapse into a 2+1 and leave us all in Flatland with a new force of nature? And perhaps eventually 0+1? I've never even heard such an idea discussed before but it strikes me as interesting. Where is Kaku when you need him?!?! It also makes me wonder if the supposed collapse was singular or came in increments. Perhaps we started with 11 and went to 10+1, 9+1, 8+1... as if winding down some cosmic clock.
Erm, it was kind of a sarcastic comment, taken from a Britsh tabloid rag, and not to be taken seriously. But you're right, of course.
What freaks me out is the thought that if the universe was a simulation, it may only be a few days old. We may have just popped into existence with all of our current memories in place and everything already set to where it is now.
Of course it's a simulation, I know. I've had experiences. But from a scientific perspective the situation is that we may never know why the Universe exists. It might remain a mystery. The reason for the mystery is that with current data the universe should have never survived the antimatter bath at the beginning of the universe. They might get extra precise readings in the future, that shows an asymmetry between matter and antimatter, but as it exists now our universe shouldn't exist.
I thought they had settled this issue a long time ago, and determined that there is a preference for matter, even if the reason is not known. http://www.science20.com/news_articles/where_did_all_the_antimatter_go-138297 Just because we don't yet know why the asymmetry exists doesn't mean that "the universe shouldn't exist".
The big mystery is that the latest measurements show that there ISN'T asymmetry. So as far as we can tell there ISN'T a preference for matter. Instead Matter and Antimatter are equals. So how did the early universe survive???
