Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Why does anything exist?

What was there from the very beginning? Was it total emptiness? Or did something exist out of necessity for all eternity? Could there have been a pivotal moment when “nothing” evolved into “something”? Why not complete emptiness? Is reality eternal? If not, will it one day surrender to eternal absence? Is total emptiness even possible?

If reality was brought into existence, does it require an external force to initiate its being? Is its creation natural or supernatural? What’s the purpose behind reality? Does it exist for a reason, or does it just exist? What lies at the very core of existence? What’s behind the genesis of it all?

Is our universe just one fragment of a greater reality, or is it everything that exists? What triggered the creation of our universe? Was it a random process? Is it the effect, a product of something more fundamental? What’s the mechanism behind a universe generator? What does the realm that precedes our universe look like? Why did the sequence of events leading to the current state of the universe occur, and why was this specific sequence chosen over any other possibility? Reality could have remained buried deep within eternal non-existence. Yet, against all odds, reality prevails.

Why existence?

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
02:44 Where did the universe come from?
14:33 Chaotic eternal inflation creates a diverse & fractal multiverse
20:38 Why the universe is suitable for us?
25:32 Spontaneous creation out of nothing
33:00 A universe out of nothing with 0 energy
37:41 The ultimate mathematical multiverse
45:06 The supreme divine creator
52:30 Reality creating itself
59:45 Further analysis
01:22:07 End credits

Papers:

"Calling for Explanation: The Case of the Thermodynamic Past State" - Baras, Dan & Shenker, Orly R.
"Why is there a universe at all, rather than just nothing?" - Adolf Grünbaum
"Stop Asking Why There’s Anything" - Stephen Maitzen
"Explaining Existence" - Chris Mortensen
"On Explaining Everything" - Diana Taschetto
"Why Is There Something, Rather Than Nothing?" - Sean M. Carroll
"Spontaneous creation of the universe from nothing" - Dongshan He, Dongfeng Gao, and Qing-yu Cai
"The Principle of Mediocrity" - Alexander Vilenkin
"Many worlds in one" - Jaume Garriga, Alexander Vilenkin
"Eternal inflation and its implications" - Alan H. Guth
"Quantum Fluctuations in Cosmology and How They Lead to a Multiverse" - Alan H. Guth
"A brief history of the multiverse" - Andrei Linde
"Inflation, Quantum Cosmology and the Anthropic Principle" - Andrei Linde
"Inflationary Cosmology" - Andrei Linde
"Eternal inflation, bubble collisions, and the persistence of memory" - Jaume Garriga, Alan H. Guth, Alexander Vilenkin
"The Mathematical Universe" - Max Tegmark
"Is 'the theory of everything' merely the ultimate ensemble theory?" - Max Tegmark
"Shut up and calculate" - Max Tegmark
"Multiverses and Cosmology: Philosophical Issues" - W. R. Stoeger, G. F. R. Ellis, U. Kirchner
"Can the Universe Create Itself?" - J. Richard Gott, III, Li-Xin Li