By “problem of existence” you mean why we exist and how we came to exist? Why do you think that can’t be answered within our world? And what do you think a world would look like if you could solve the problem in it?
By “problem of existence” you mean why we exist and how we came to exist?
Yes. Why and how anything exists, and what existence is.
Why do you think that can’t be answered within our world?
The reason that I think this problem can’t be answered within our world is that the lack of an answer doesn’t seem to be a matter of lack of information. It’s a unique question in that although it seems to be a reasonable question, there’s no possibility of an answer to this question, not even a false one.
It’s a reasonable question because X is a causal reality, so it is reasonable to ask what caused X. There’s no possibility of an answer to the question because causality is an arrow that always requires a point of departure. If you say the universe was created by a spark, and the rest followed by mathematics and logical necessity, still, what created that spark?
Religions have creation stories, but they explain the creation of X by the creation of X outside X. So creation stories don’t resolve the conundrum of creation, they just move creation to someplace outside experience, where we cannot expect to understand anything. This may represent a universal insight that the existence of X cannot be explained within X.
And what do you think a world would look like if you could solve the problem in it?
This is analogous to being in flatland and wondering about edges. I suppose the main mysterious thing about the larger universe Y would be acausality. Here within X, it seems to be a rule, if not a logical principle, that everything is determined by something else. If something were to happen spontaneously, how did it decide to? What is the rule or pattern for its spontaneous appearance? These are all reasonable questions within X. Somehow Y gets around them.
There’s no possibility of an answer to the question because causality is an arrow that always requires a point of departure.
What do you think of the following answer? There is some evidence that backward time travel may be possible under some circumstances in a way that is compatible with general relativity. So suppose, many years in the future, a team of physicists and engineers creates a wormhole in the universe and sends something back to the time of the Big Bang, causing it and creating our universe. That way, it’s all self-contained.
Self-contained is good, though it doesn’t resolve the existence problem. (What is the appropriate cliché there … you can’t pull yourself out of quicksand by pulling on your boots?)
Backward time travel itself opens up a number of wonderful possibilities, including universe self-reflection and the possibility of a post-hoc framework of objective value.
Backward time travel itself opens up a number of wonderful possibilities, including universe self-reflection and the possibility of a post-hoc framework of objective value.
By “problem of existence” you mean why we exist and how we came to exist? Why do you think that can’t be answered within our world? And what do you think a world would look like if you could solve the problem in it?
Yes. Why and how anything exists, and what existence is.
The reason that I think this problem can’t be answered within our world is that the lack of an answer doesn’t seem to be a matter of lack of information. It’s a unique question in that although it seems to be a reasonable question, there’s no possibility of an answer to this question, not even a false one.
It’s a reasonable question because X is a causal reality, so it is reasonable to ask what caused X. There’s no possibility of an answer to the question because causality is an arrow that always requires a point of departure. If you say the universe was created by a spark, and the rest followed by mathematics and logical necessity, still, what created that spark?
Religions have creation stories, but they explain the creation of X by the creation of X outside X. So creation stories don’t resolve the conundrum of creation, they just move creation to someplace outside experience, where we cannot expect to understand anything. This may represent a universal insight that the existence of X cannot be explained within X.
This is analogous to being in flatland and wondering about edges. I suppose the main mysterious thing about the larger universe Y would be acausality. Here within X, it seems to be a rule, if not a logical principle, that everything is determined by something else. If something were to happen spontaneously, how did it decide to? What is the rule or pattern for its spontaneous appearance? These are all reasonable questions within X. Somehow Y gets around them.
What do you think of the following answer? There is some evidence that backward time travel may be possible under some circumstances in a way that is compatible with general relativity. So suppose, many years in the future, a team of physicists and engineers creates a wormhole in the universe and sends something back to the time of the Big Bang, causing it and creating our universe. That way, it’s all self-contained.
Self-contained is good, though it doesn’t resolve the existence problem. (What is the appropriate cliché there … you can’t pull yourself out of quicksand by pulling on your boots?)
Backward time travel itself opens up a number of wonderful possibilities, including universe self-reflection and the possibility of a post-hoc framework of objective value.
It also makes encryption more difficult!