“Why is there something rather than nothing?
It’s a classic puzzle that’s getting a lot of attention now. Sean Carroll has
just posted his opinion on the arXiv—he’s decided there’s
no answer. Here’s his abstract:
It seems
natural to ask why the universe exists at all. Modern physics suggests that the
universe can exist all by itself as a self-contained system, without anything
external to create or sustain it. But there might not be an absolute answer to why
it exists. I argue that any attempt to account for the existence of something
rather than nothing must ultimately bottom out in a set of brute facts; the
universe simply is, without ultimate cause or explanation.
