Why there is something rather than nothing...

[bennyboy]

Guys, this only goes for a few minutes... Watch it and tell me if you think that consciousness really does play a role in how we perceive our subjective reality.

I'd almost say this very clip should be a sticky post, because it is central to very much of the science/philosophic debates we've had on these forums.  For example, Rhythm and I have often referred to QM in arguments about the nature of the Universe. It's a very good clip, and worth its own thread IMO.

--edit--

This, btw, is one of the reasons that I favor an idealistic world view, rather than a physical monist one, and why I shy away from determinism.

[Arkilogue]

Why do you assume quantum emptiness is the default starting state?

How does "quantum emptiness"  make matter?

Or is it more plausible that the beginning state was a "quantum fullness" (matter taking up all space) and the "inflation" (cavitation) of a universe made space within the original substance?

Lawrence Krauss' "A Universe From Nothing"= A universe from 'empty' (quantum) space.

So "quantum" is the magic in the empty space? I thought there was no space or time before inflation? What is the measure of nothing?

[Jehanne]

Lawrence Krauss' "A Universe From Nothing"= A universe from 'empty' (quantum) space.

So "quantum" is the magic in the empty space?  I thought there was no space or time before inflation? What is the measure of nothing?

"Nothing" cannot exist; it is a non-sequitur.  It's like asking, "What color is Saturday?"  Eternal cosmologies are one possible answer to the question of ultimate origins.  Yes, science may never know for sure; the problem may be simply unknowable.

[Arkilogue]