Why Does The Universe Exist?

Stephen Wolfram is trying to find a rule that dictates the Universe. And in doing so, he might even become the first person to finally devise a complete, fundamental theory of physics. Elegant, or what?

- Marcus Chown

Back in the plague year of 1665-1666, Isaac Newton changed the scientific world, discovering the universal law of gravity and the mathematics of calculus. Now, in the plague year of 2020-2021, is history about to repeat itself? Stephen Wolfram thinks so. The British-born scientist, who lives in the US, claims he has found a route to a fundamental theory of physics that answers some of the biggest questions, such as what is space? What is time? And why does the Universe exist?

“To be fair, a lot of the work was done in 2019 and we were about to start speaking about it in March 2020, but everything locked down for COVID,” says Wolfram. “But it is true to say that we have made more progress towards finding a fundamental theory of physics than I dared believe was possible.”

Wolfram’s starting point was to ask: What is space? “Physicists don’t often ask this question,” he says. “They merely think of space as the backdrop against which the events of the Universe play out.”

According to Wolfram, space is made of a network of ‘nodes’, which are connected to each other. The nature of the connections – how each node is linked to nearby and faraway nodes – can create a space of any dimension. So if the number of nodes increases as the square of the distance from any given node – like the surface area of a sphere – the network has the properties of familiar 3D space. “I actually believe the Universe started out with infinitely many dimensions and gradually cooled down to the three we have today,” says Wolfram. “But I don’t yet know why there are precisely three.”