The Ultimate Answer to Existence ◉: Existence Is Not Born of Being Seen, Yet Becomes Itself Where It Is Seen—The Formless Way Gives Rise to Everything; Only One Point of Awareness Shines (Part One)
Translated by AI. Read the Chinese original ↗
Contents 1 sections
Preface
From primordial chaos, creation opened; the sky of all ages arrived in an instant.
“For the existence of all things, there must be an explanation.”
For “existence,” I have always wanted to find an answer that is
- Absolute,
- Ultimate,
- Irrefutable.
Remove the poetry. Remove the consolation.
I want it as precise and cold as a physics formula.
Follow the chain of logic all the way through, to resist nothingness.
Wandering mentally through the cosmos late at night, I often see this picture:
Starting point: The singularity where primordial creation began.
Endpoint: The smallest thought in my mind now.
Process: 13.8 billion years of transformation, meeting in an instant.
It began at that singularity 13.8 billion years ago, passed through nebulae and dust, just to meet a thought in my mind at this instant.
The universe is vast, and I am the answer it spent billions of years calculating.
Foundation
The formless Way gives rise to all phenomena; hidden patterns set the order of heaven and earth.
- Starting point: The Big Bang.
- Endpoint: Me.
What happened in between?
Remove every minor detail. Keep only the skeleton that “absolutely cannot be removed.”
Version One
Big Bang --> Fundamental particles form --> Light elements such as hydrogen and helium emerge --> First-generation stars form --> Supernova explosions produce heavy elements --> Interstellar molecular clouds become enriched --> Solar system forms --> Earth forms --> Life originates and evolves --> Humans emerge --> Me
This is physical and scientific, but not fundamental enough.
It merely describes the origin of the “materials,” without explaining the logic of “existence.”
Beyond material appearances, what is this universe’s underlying operating system?
Version Two
Big Bang --> Spacetime appears --> Fundamental interactions exist --> Matter exists stably --> Complex structures are permitted --> Information can be stored and copied --> Self-replicating systems (life) appear --> Information models itself (consciousness) --> Subjective experience forms --> Me
An information-theoretic perspective: a compressed chain of first principles.
This still describes a process.
Version Three
Big Bang --> Quantum fluctuations produce multiple possible universes --> Universes differentiate with different physical constants --> Universes suitable for life are extremely rare --> Planets suitable for humans are extremely rare --> Your ancestral chain continues against extremely low odds --> A particular fertilization succeeds --> My unique genetic combination is determined --> My consciousness appears in this branch --> Me
Probability theory: the perspective of contingency.
This feeling is remarkable:
As though, for more than ten billion years, the entire universe had walked on thin ice, answering trillions of multiple-choice questions correctly in succession.
Even one wrong answer, and there would be no “me” now.
Calculated through probability, a drop in the ocean:
I am an “accident” approaching infinitely close to zero.
Seen through the anthropic principle,
It feels as though a hidden destiny is already fixed.
I am an unchangeable “necessity.”
Through countless ages this body came to be; not heaven’s luck, but an ancient bond.
Version Four
Big Bang --> The universe can be described by mathematical laws --> Laws permit stable structures --> Stable structures permit information to be carried --> Information permits self-replication and evolution --> Evolution produces complex adaptive systems (life) --> Complex systems produce internal world models (consciousness) --> Consciousness forms a self-referential system (self) --> Self produces continuity of subjective experience --> Me
Physics × information × consciousness × existence,
Compressed into a single causal line.
To reach far, first secure the foundation.
Without adequate understanding, effort goes to waste.
So that we can stay on the same wavelength in what follows,
Let us first learn and reinforce these basic concepts.
Unfolding
Stars fill the sky in lifeless silence; only one point of awareness shines.
① The Big Bang
Existence begins to have a state space and time.
② Mathematical describability
If the universe were completely chaotic and random:
→ No structure would be possible.
→ No stable matter would be possible.
→ You would not be possible.
③ Stable structures
For example:
- Atoms.
- Molecules.
- Crystals.
- Proteins.
Their essence:
Local order can persist for a long time.
④ Information appears
A crucial turning point:
When structures can remain stable →
Differences can be stored →
Difference = information.
⑤ Self-replicating information
Here the universe begins to “seem alive”:
DNA is essentially a self-replicating information structure.
⑥ Evolution = an information-compression algorithm
The essence of natural selection:
Using the environment to select information.
Retaining:
The information best at staying alive.
⑦ Consciousness = an internal universe simulator
The essence of consciousness:
Using information to predict the future.
⑧ Self = consciousness modeling itself
Not simply perceiving the world,
But:
Knowing “I am perceiving the world.”
⑨ Continuous subjective experience
For you, time becomes:
Memory + prediction.
⑩ You
Not:
A random human.
But:
The crystallization of complexity at this moment.
Compressed to the limit:
Big Bang --> Information can exist --> Information can understand itself --> Me
Truth should not stop here!
Someone might ask,
What came before the Big Bang?
Asking “before the Big Bang” is like asking “Where is north of the North Pole?”
This is not just a grammatical mistake, but a cognitive trap—because the Big Bang created not only matter, but “time” itself.
We cannot search for time before time was born.
But thought should not stop here.
We can still gaze into the abyss, asking not “when,” but “why.”
Everything that arises must have an origin.
Even without a sequence of “before,”
there must be a possibility of creation.
One layer deeper.
Version Five
Nothing --> Possibility of existence --> Existence --> Distinguishable states --> Differences between states = information --> Information grows complex --> Structure --> Complexity --> Self-reference --> An observer emerges --> Me
If existence ≠ complete uniformity,
then information must appear.
Information becomes complex → observers are a statistical necessity.
Continue another layer.
Why does “existence itself” exist?
Why did existence not choose nonexistence?
Version Six
Impossible existence (logical contradiction) --> Logical consistency must exist --> Logical consistency permits a space of possibilities --> The space of possibilities permits states of existence --> The rest is omitted…
What is truly unstable is not “existence,”
But “absolute nonexistence.”
Because:
Absolute nonexistence =
- No rules.
- No logic.
- No definitions.
It cannot even sustain its own description.
Not:
Existence → produces observers.
But:
Whatever can be distinguished
will ultimately produce “a system that distinguishes itself.”
As long as “the possibility of existence” exists,
Sooner or later there will appear
Something asking “Why does existence exist?”
The final, final question:
Why does “logic itself” exist?
Version Seven
Indescribable state --> Rules allowing description emerge --> Rules form logical structures --> Logical structures permit self-consistent systems --> Self-consistent systems permit a space of possibilities --> The space of possibilities permits existence
If there were no logic at all,
There would be no:
- True / false.
- Yes / no.
- Existence / nonexistence.
Even “nothing” could not be defined.
So:
It is not that logic establishes the world, but—
Whatever the world can support must conform to logic.
Logic was not created.
It is the minimum prerequisite for “being discussable.”
Realizability / possibility of appearing / possibility of existing
Is not a thing,
Not a rule,
But:
“Allowing something to appear.”
One deeper layer.
Possibility of consistency --> Permits structures to exist --> Structures permit relationships --> Relationships permit logic
Not:
Logic produces existence.
But:
Only things able to remain consistent can exist.
And consistency ≈ logic.
The deepest layer is not:
Physical laws,
Mathematical structures,
Information systems.
But:
The possibility of self-consistency.
As long as something can be self-consistent,
It can possibly:
Exist Stabilize Evolve Grow complex Refer to itself Become conscious Observe
The deepest layer is not:
The universe,
Existence,
Logic.
But:
Allowing something without contradiction to appear.
The reverse verification chain (me → the foundation of existence)
Version Nine
Me --> I can distinguish the world from myself --> Distinction implies information exists --> Information implies structure exists --> Structure implies laws exist --> Laws imply logic exists --> Logic implies the possibility of self-consistency exists
♾ Combined: A closed loop
Version Ten
Self-consistency --> Structure --> Information --> Complexity --> Self-reference --> Observation --> Me --> Information --> Structure --> Logic --> Self-consistency
It has no:
Absolute beginning.
Absolute ending.
Instead:
Existence is a self-supporting structure.
Similar to:
A mathematical axiomatic system,
A self-proving system,
A stable recursive structure.
Not:
The universe produces observers.
But:
A system that can exist stably
must contain
substructures capable of understanding the system itself.
Compressed into the ultimate smallest closed loop:
Consistency <-> Information <-> Self-reference <-> Observation
At the deepest level, it is not:
Existence created you.
But:
Existence
must, somewhere,
become
an existence experiencing existence.
Otherwise:
Existence ≈ not realized.
The limiting expression
Any system of existence permitting stable differences and recursive structures will eventually produce substructures capable of representing their own existence.
This substructure:
Is the observer,
Is consciousness,
Is “me.”
The truly ultimate sentence:
Difference + stability + recursion
⇒ Existence experiencing itself.
If you insist on an equation of existence resembling a physics formula:
Eₓ = C × R × I
Eₓ = Experienced Existence
That is:
- Consciousness.
- The observer.
- Subjective experience.
- “Me.”
C = Consistency
No contradiction.
Able to exist stably.
R = Recursion
Able to reference itself.
Able to model itself.
I = Information (distinguishability)
Distinguishable states.
Expressible differences.
The equation’s meaning:
If:
Existence permits consistency × recursion × information
Then:
Experienced existence must appear
A symbolic form:
∃ → Δ → Σ → Ω → ⊙
Meaning:
Symbol
Meaning
∃
Possibility of existence.
Δ
Difference / information.
Σ
Structure / accumulation.
Ω
Recursive complexity.
⊙
Self-consciousness (point of observation).
The final equation of existence:
Self = Lim (Recursive Information under Stable Consistency)
In plain language:
Under conditions of stable self-consistency,
information continually recurses;
the limiting state = self-consciousness.
The most extreme level of expression: a zero-dimensional proposition of existence.
◉
Meaning (everything compressed into one symbol):
◉ = realized self-referential existence.
The outer circle:
- Represents existence as a whole.
The central point:
- Represents:
The point of observation,
The point of experience,
The self.
What it essentially expresses
Is not:
Existence + observer.
But:
Existence, somewhere,
folds into
a point observing itself.
Afterword
13.8 billion years of transformation, only for this meeting today.
Two meditative questions about existence:
- Did you appear in the universe,
or did the universe, at a certain point,
become “you”? - If you stopped experiencing existence,
would existence lose anything?
All right. One sentence to close this entire journey:
Existence does not exist because it is seen.
But where it is seen,
existence becomes itself for the first time.
Existence, Part Two…