Why Does the World Exist?

Good way to start the year by finally finishing something that is not a textbook.

aka the exploration of the most profound question that one can ask.

The book's chapters are divided by different possible answers to the question "why is there something rather than nothing?" Though to ask this question, one must assume that "something" actually exists. A "proof" of such is offered in the prologue:

A quick proof that there must be something rather than nothing, for modern people who lead busy lives:
Suppose there were nothing. Then there would be no laws; for laws, after all, are something. if there were no laws, then everything would be permitted. If everything were permitted, than nothing would be forbidden. So if there were nothing, nothing would be forbidden. Thus nothing is self-forbidding.
Therefore, there must be something. QED.

The rest of the book is also filled with even more subtly worded arguments, presented through Holt's conversations with a range of philosophers and theoretical physicists. Along the way are interludes of his amusing experiences at Cafe de Flore (where Satre and others have pondered the same question).

Some interesting quotations:

Science is a differential equation, religion is the boundary condition

This one is from Alan Turing, and I'm sure I'll find this much funnier once I actually learn about differential equations next year.

We tend to think that value can bring something into existence only with the aid of some mechanism [...] But such a mechanism could never explain the existence of a world. It could never explain why there is Something rather than Nothing, because it would be part of the Something to be explained"

This is a reoccurring rebuttal to many of the theories in the book. Ways to get around this often ends in tautology (terrible), or ends up resorting to a brute fact (equally unsatisfying).

He expressed amazement that mathematics could be so complicated. A mathematician had told him that 80 percent of mathematics was about infinity. And he was horrified to learn that there was more than one infinity!

In regards to philosopher Derek Parfit, I find his remark very funny.

It would be very odd if the Big Bang came with a label that said, "THIS MECHANISM OPERATED ONLY ONCE"

 I can totally imagine this appearing in Hitchhiker xD

A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands of years of non-existence; he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true

from The Vanity of Existence by Arthur Schopenhauer. The book shifts from cosmic existence to personal consciousness (what is the "I" in Descartes' "I am thinking, therefore I exist"?), and eventually comes to the topic of death and the fear of it (is that Giardine smiling I see?).

Lastly, a few funny definitions:

Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
Reality, n. The dream of a mad philosopher.

from The Devil's Dictionary (this where I will be spending the rest of the day).