Abstract
This essay is a cursory overview of the first insights to come out of an investigation into the question whether a universe can create itself out of nothing and, if so, how. The suspicion that in an uncaused universe where things create, and so explain each other it doesn’t make sense to try to describe events in terms of cause and effect is supported by the fact that quantum mechanics only makes perfect sense if we abandon causality, if, as in quantum field theory, we consider particles to be the product as well as the source of their field, their interactions. As the law of action = reaction acknowledges the fact that the force on a particle can only be as strong as its opposition to it, its inertia, and particles owe their inertia to the force they anchor each other on the positions they act from, gravity must be ambivalent. By introducing a quantummechanical definition of mass, the essay shows how attraction and repulsion are the two sides of a gravity that powers and is powered by the expansion of the universe, inevitably leading to a uniform mass distribution. As in a self-creating universe the total of everything inside, including spacetime itself stays nil, nature has a paradoxical character which may take some effort to digest: instead of clinging to the essentially religious idea of causality and missing the fun, the reader will have to get used to the rational reasoning required to understand and appreciate the tale.
Anton W. M. Biermans