>>14419659No, the universe exists separate from the causal structure altogether.
Consider the number 5. Did it ever get created, or caused? It did not -- its existence is outside that whole structure.
Consider Conway's game of life. Within a particular instance of that game, I can identity the cause of a particular cell being alive or dead. But what is the cause of that whole game-of-life universe existing? You could say that me simulating it on my computer is the cause, but that is a different notion of cause and effect than the notion that has meaning WITHIN the game-of-life universe. And as for the cause of the existence of the whole game-of-life conceptual universe, that was not caused when Conway game up with the idea -- it is implicit in mathematics itself, and therefore as causeless as the number 5.
I posit that much the same holds for the universe. Cause and effect are a structure that exist within it, and the thing as a whole I do not expect to have a meaningful notion of "cause" any more than the number 5.
