Why does the number 42 exist? Answer this and you will answer your question. Related question: does 42 exist even if there is noone there multiplying 6 and 7?

Me laying in bed having an existential crisis.

Sort of. Yes we will, but the answer will invariably be a paradox of sorts.

The good news is, you don’t have to do anything special and everyone gets to find out.

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

• Douglas Adams

I feel this is not possible from inside the box unless something outside provides us the information.

Asking “why” only makes sense in the context of a conscious decision, unless you accept something like “because the Big Bang happened” as an answer.

There is no reason, it’s just random shit causing random shit. If random shit happens on the universes timescales of billions and trillions of years then cool stuff is bound to happen eventually. There’s no rhyme or reason for it.

There’s a reason?

Ultimately, it is extremely rare in nature for there to be just one of anything. Phenomena rarely occur alone. Why should this not extend to the very existence of Universes, independent Big Bangs? Maybe the Big Bang is some incredibly rare quantum fluctuation in the vacuum that occurs by odd chance once every “ten to the ten to the ten to the ten…” years. Some freakishly long length of time. But who cares? There’s no one around to count the empty years. But once in a very blue moon, in some random patch of the vast infinite, infinitely expanding space time, a Big Bang occurs. It has its course and eventually decays down to nothing, returning to the quantum foam from which it sprung. In time, everything decays down to photons, those photons are stretched beyond the cosmic horizon. A Big Bang happens, a Universe thrives, and it decays to nothing. Awhile later, another Big Bang, etc.

So while a Universe is a rare thing, it is not unique. But in turn, it does give a sense of meaning. Suddenly we are now a part of a grand infinity of time and space. The concept of the Wheel of Time is made literal! And that is the thing that whole religions are built on. There are ways to find meaning in an infinite circle.

We got about 10 years left to do anything radical to save our planet before all chances of known sapience are gone. Sorry bud, we’re still arguing whether we should oppress minorities and trans people, we ain’t figuring shit out.

How does the positrack rear end on a Plymouth work? Nobody knows, son.

My bet is if we do it’ll be some unsatisfactory brute fact the last smart guy will figure out 3 days before the Sun grows too hot for us to survive any longer.

Solved problem. It’s 42. Next.

I don’t think we will.

But religions don’t offer a good answer, either. At least those that a know. “In the beginning was god” But why was there god? What was there before god? What created god? Ask that in church and you get stoned to death. Or kicked out. Either one of that.

No. There is a range of hypotheses, from “none” to “because a supernatural creator willed so”, but they’ll stay hypotheses. You can study them and find which one makes more sense for you, but there will never be certainties.