Creation of universes from nothing.

[GrandizerII]

Aren't "quantum tunneling" and "de Sitter space" two things which taken together are something?  All of the "something from nothing" speculations I have researched require various laws, structures or processes to first be in place in order for their nothing ==> something to occur.  They all seem quite silly, at least on this point, and appear to reduce to semantics.

Aristotle would have found modern physics to be disturbing.

Perhaps we should bring him all the way here from the past through some time travel machine, and see if he likes what we have or not.

[polymath257]

Aren't "quantum tunneling" and "de Sitter space" two things which taken together are something?  All of the "something from nothing" speculations I have researched require various laws, structures or processes to first be in place in order for their nothing ==> something to occur.  They all seem quite silly, at least on this point, and appear to reduce to semantics.

Aristotle would have found modern physics to be disturbing.

Aristotle would have found Newtonian physics disturbing.

[Dr H]

I'd kinda like to know what definition of "nothing" is being invoked here.

The Kraussian type of "nothing", which is still a "something" at the end of the day.

Heh.

“What pray was the electron?”
“Well, there is one fragmentary source which alludes to it as a ‘Negative Twist of Nothingness'.”
       -- Brother Francis, in Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz

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 They all seem quite silly, at least on this point, and appear to reduce to semantics.

Nothing silly about semantics; semantics are fundamental to communication.