this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 45 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

No one knows, it's unlikely we ever will. There's stuff and that's why you can even ask this question. If there wasn't anything, you wouldn't be able to ask anything. It happened, so now we have to deal with it.

[–] credo@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Your last sentence should become some kind of philosophy.

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 4 points 2 weeks ago

Look up Phenomenology.

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[–] Sasha@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Ex physicist here: Fucking no clue, but here's two neat ideas

  1. Because there has always been things. Basically it's entirely possible the universe just kind loops around given enough time, there are a few really interesting ways to do this but the classic one is where the big bang reverses and there's a bug crunch before a new big bang. That's not very likely based on our observations, but there are other more mathematically complex ways to have a cyclical universe, and they don't necessarily require having a defined beginning.

  2. Because nothingness is unstable. Basically, if there's a concept of nothingness, no energy, particles time or space, but it's possible for little universes to occasionally exist and disappear really quickly, then it's possible that our universe suddenly popped into existence, got really fucking big before it could disappear again and then got stuck existing. This is based on the highly advanced area of physics called making a wild fucking guess.

I'd say most likely that we'll have to be satisfied with that not being a question that can be answered. Much in the same way that we can't answer the question of why the laws of physics look the way they do, we can just describe what they currently are.

[–] Earflap@reddthat.com 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There's a third option: Black holes create new universes through some as yet undiscovered process. Then your existence just becomes a statistical eventuality, as do every other life that you could ever live.

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There's a fourth option: every reference to the mystical properties of black holes on lemmy creates new universes through some as yet undiscovered process. Then your existence just becomes a statistical eventuality, as do every other life that you could ever live.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Matriks404@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

It's a mega mind!

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

[–] atempuser23@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” "

Douglas Adams

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 12 points 2 weeks ago

You got us!

starts to dissolve

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

No one knows. I really want to know, but the current understanding takes us back only to the big bang. Not why it happened or why anything exists at all.

The Anthropic Principle is at work here. If nothing existed we wouldn't be here to ask why it exists.

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[–] logos@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago
[–] NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 6 points 2 weeks ago
[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The universe feels like a pretty whimsical place, so why not? Might as well try it out. If it sucks, you can always let everything crash into a singularity and start over.

[–] Berttheduck@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Beat me to it. Why not was my answer to this question too.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

The worst part is we're here now and most of us are intrinsically forced to deal with whether we want to or not.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Aren't quarks made up of the nothingness, the vacuum of space, somehow vibrating? I feel like that's what smart people have been trying to tell me.

If that's correct, then the nothing is the source of the something.

[–] Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Because when there's nothing there is literally no meaning. Prior to the Big Bang there was no Entropy, no Time, no Matter or Energy. You cannot really discuss what happened then because it would be nonsense. You can't even ask 'how long before the BB did the nothing exist?' because there was no time, so the answer is like dividing by zero. The BB brought all that into existence so by necessity anything must exist for your question to even have meaning.

To answer your question more directly: because nature abhors a vacuum (even though there was no vacuum before the BB because that would have been a 'something').

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Prior to the Big Bang there was no Entropy, no Time, no Matter or Energy

Is there a consensus on this or you are just simplifying for the sake of simplifying?

[–] Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

As much consensus as there can be. The BB is defined as being the event that brought everything into existence and so there's no point in debating something that cannot be tested.

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 2 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

That's what you did. We can't know is very different from "there was no this and this and this prior".

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[–] logos@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

I don’t even think there is a consensus on the Big Bang but if there was, then that’s when time began so “before” that is meaningless.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 4 points 2 weeks ago
[–] MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Because it can. If it couldn't it wouldn't but it can so it does. Be can do, so do be.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Fuck all this. Let's get a second opinion from the nothingverse, maybe they know something we don't

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago
[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Because if there wasn't you couldn't ask this question.

[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 5 points 2 weeks ago

Now the question has been asked and universe has no longer a purpose. The end stage of the universe is starting now.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Have you heard of the big bang?

[–] HeneryHawk@reddthat.com 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I have. Its the matter and antimatter thing. I wonder who put it there in the first place

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[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Because, to maintain "nothingness" the omniverse must balance matter and anti-matter.

Well, that became unbalanced because of random fluctuations.

So theres a pocket of matter and anti-matter didn't annihilate for some reason, I call it "plot armor" reasons, and that separated from each other forming 2 regions of space.

So the region of positive-matter, through randomness eventually formed our universe.

The region of anti-matter probably formed its own anti-verse


Ok I'm bullshitting, I'm not a scientist and I made up the whole thing mmkay? That's my amateur explaination of the universe. Fight me.

But like, philosophically make sense.

How do you get something from 0?

0= [+1] + [-1]

See? That's my mathematical proof.

Its my version of E=MC², but with the creation of the universe and anti-verse.

🤓

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

There isn't any anti-verse, normal matter won for reasons still unknown, because the big bang should have created an equal amount of matter and antimatter. So plot armour is a good enough explanation for now.

But since there was less antimatter, it was all annihilated.

That still doesn't answer OP's question, though, you can go further - why did big bang create more matter? Why did big bang happen? And if you one day manage to answer that, you'll have to ask why the thing that caused big bang happened?

The question simply doesn't have an answer.

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[–] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Blame mesons , they fucked up the matter/antimatter balance in the early universe from being 50/50 to 51/49

As a result, we live

Sufficient to say, this has made a lot of people angry over time

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

because the demiurge thought it would be cool

[–] wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

The question will probably never figure out.

I'm more about wondering about after everything now. When everything stops expanding and all the energy is gone, does everything collapse and cause another big bang? Has this happened before?

Is this "multiverse" many of us wonder about really just this same universe in different incarnations? Can any of these incarnations really be said to be "before" or "after" each other?

This is the stuff I ponder about recently.

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