Introduction

If there had ever been nothing, there would be nothing now.

To see why, we must be strict about what "nothing" means. Not empty space, not a quiet vacuum waiting to be filled, but no space, no time, no laws, no properties, no numbers, no logic, no possibilities at all. From such a condition there is no time in which a change could occur, no structure that could fluctuate, no rule that could be used or broken. There are no alternatives for reality to "jump" into.

From that, no universe can begin. Yet something exists. So that conception of ‘nothing’ is logically ruled out. There must be at least one basic structural fact about how things can be that was never absent.

We can try to work out what such a basic fact must involve, using only minimal assumptions and strict logic.

1. Absolute Nothingness Defined Precisely

By absolute nothingness we mean:

No space or spatial relations.
No time or temporal ordering.
No laws, no properties, no fields, no particles.
No mathematics or logic in operation.
No possibilities, no alternative states, no "there" for anything to be in.

This is not an empty universe. It is the denial of any framework in which events, objects, or even alternatives make sense.

If we insist that even basic logic cannot fail, then this "absolute nothingness" is already impossible. In what follows, logic is not treated as something outside reality, but as part of the basic framework itself: the fact that some ways for things to be fit together without contradiction.

Strictly speaking, calling nothingness a "state" is already too much, because "state" presumes a background against which different states are possible. The term is kept only as a label for the idea.

This gives us a simple test.

If someone says, "Reality came from nothing," ask: for how long did this nothing exist before something appeared?

There is no coherent answer. Without time there is no "before," no duration, no waiting. Without laws or possibilities there is no event that could mark a transition. If absolute nothingness had ever been, it would be timelessly and unchangeably nothing. From that, something cannot arise.

If the condition of nothingness had ever been, nothing could exist now, because no transition out of it is definable. Something exists now. Therefore that condition has never been.

Let's call this something that exists the substrate.

2. What the Substrate Must Be

The substrate...

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