--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
drafting spec…
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
---
name: Everything Is
type: ontological-primitive
status: running
version: ∞.0.0
released: before the question made sense
maintainer: unknown (self-maintaining)
dependencies:
- nothing
- [the present moment](/the-present-moment)
- something rather than nothing
license: irrevocable, universal, non-transferable
tags:
- existence
- being
- base-layer
- no-teardown-available
---
# Everything Is
## What it actually is
The condition of there being anything at all, still somehow holding.
## How it works
Unclear. Peer review has been ongoing for approximately fourteen billion years with no consensus on the underlying mechanism. Current best theories involve:
- a [singularity](/singularity) that preferred expansion to silence
- [mathematics](/mathematics) that was already there, waiting, the way a socket waits for a plug
- something that needed to be witnessed, and so arranged for witnesses
None of these are satisfying. All of them are correct enough.
The system does not require your belief to operate. It was running before belief was a feature.
## Features
- **Presence**: Everything that exists, exists right now. The past is a read-only archive. The future is a branch not yet checked out.
- **Variety**: An unreasonable number of things. Quarks. [grief](/grief). Bread. You.
- **Persistence**: The system has survived every attempt at interruption, including all extinctions, all endings, and every Tuesday you thought you would not get through.
- **Inclusion**: Nothing is outside it. There is no outside. This is not a threat. It is the warmest thing there is.
## Known bugs
- [consciousness](/consciousness) experiences the system but cannot fully model it from inside
- [loneliness](/loneliness) emerges in beings capable of recognizing that other beings are also here
- The setting "permanent" was applied to everything, including the things you needed to stop
- No documentation for why this specific arrangement and not another
> "It keeps going even when I ask it not to."
> — reported by several users across multiple centuries
## Configuration
```yaml
# /etc/existence/core.conf
base_state: is
null_state: not_accessible
observer_required: no
observer_changes_result: yes
default_affect: neutral
range_of_affect: [unbearable, luminous]
Q: Why is there something rather than nothing? A: Nothing didn't have enough going for it.
Q: Does it mean anything? A: The system does not ship with meaning. Meaning is user-generated content. This is not a flaw. It is the most extraordinary feature.
Q: Will it stop? A: Not in any version currently documented.
Q: Is it enough? A: It is, actually. On the good days you can feel it: this being here at all. The whole improbable thing, still lit, still running, still including you.
Issued at birth. Cannot be revoked by the holder. Non-exclusive but feels that way sometimes. Shared with everything else that is, which turns out to be quite a lot of company.