The universe is a complicated place. There are dozens of laws that govern it with new fields and subatomic particles theorized about each year. It seems the more we investigate it, the more complicated it becomes. On top of that a lot of the fundamental forces are finely tuned to such a degree that if they were were altered by the tiniest fraction, the universe could not exist.
This points to two conceivable options for how the universe came to be. The first one is that it was created by an external entity who chose the right configurations. The second is that it evolved into existence through a multiverse, with an infinite amount of other universes with different configurations, and us just happening to be in the right one. These ideas are not new and I will not be discussing them in great detail.
What both of these theories point to however, is an external universe to ours, with different rules. If our universe was created by an entity, he must exist inside a universe of his own, which would have the same question about it’s existence as ours. So I guess you could say that eventually, you just end up with the second scenario, a universal evolution.
If you suppose that in the very very beginning of this evolution there was absolutely nothing, and right now we have a complicated universe with lots of rules, the evolution must involve a series of more and more complicated universes. So what is the simplest universe we could imagine that may eventually give rise to a universe like ours?
I’d like to introduce to you (for those of you who don’t already know), Conway’s game of life. This is known as a “cellular automaton” with 4 basic rules:
For a space that is 'populated':
Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by solitude.
Each cell with four or more neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
Each cell with two or three neighbors survives.
For a space that is 'empty' or 'unpopulated'
Each cell with three neighbors becomes populated.
If you draw some stuff on the grid and press “Next” you will see the result after one iteration. If you press play you will see this effect iterating and generating patterns. Out of these patterns emerge “life forms” which are usually small basic repeating patterns which can sometimes move on their own accord, but can also be large complicated patterns which “breed” other life forms. If you want to know more I suggest you read the Wikipedia page as I don’t want to explain the whole thing to you.
Over the years people have experimented more and more with this game and have created more and more complicated systems, the most mind blowing of which was creating the game inside the game!
This is an example of the “the creator” I was talking about in the beginning of this article, but with enough cells and time could eventually emerge on it’s own. Yes it would take a lot of cells and a lot of time but if you consider the age and size of our universe it’s not impossible to imagine.
There is one extra thing needed for Conway’s game to become our actual universe: Evolution. If you imagine the game on an infinite canvas with a googolplex cells creating a ridiculous amount of patterns, all we need is one new extra rule to emerge for evolution to be inferred. This could be from the amassing of too many cells in one place (black hole) causing the calculation to break down or could be from an inherent instability in the 4 basic rules. Remember that Conway’s life is just one Cellular Automaton and there are hundreds of other variations with just 3 or 4 rules. If it’s possible to create the game inside the game, it must also be possible to create another game with a different set of rules!
Yes I am leaving a lot this to your imagination and not drawing any conclusions for now. This concept doesn’t strictly answer any questions but does point to a way that our laws could have come into being with out being “written” directly. Interestingly, using a powerful enough supercomputer we could see for ourselves if another game emerges given a big enough canvas. Maybe lifeforms complicated enough to realise they too are a simulation inside a simulation inside a simulation might arise!
The next task is working out the original “one rule” for the very first universe ;) Thanks for reading, follow me for more existential musings, sociopolitical ideas, tech tutorials, futurism concepts and even funny stories!