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Could The Universe Come from Absolute Nothing?

2026-07-05 Science & Technology
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Dr Brian Keating
Dr Brian Keating
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Description

Something existed before time. Something may outlast this universe. The real question is not whether the multiverse is real but which infinity we already live inside. Experimental cosmologist Brian Keating (UC San Diego, BICEP, Simons Observatory) sat down with Gleb Solomin to push on the questions cosmology cannot answer with data yet. We cover: what "before the Big Bang" even means when spacetime itself begins at the Big Bang, whether the standard origin story survives the latest tension in the dark energy measurements, why a multiverse you cannot test is philosophy wearing a lab coat, the gap between mathematical elegance and experimental proof, and why string theory's beauty is exactly what should make you suspicious of it. Modern physics may have hit a wall that mathematics alone cannot climb. This is a conversation about where that wall is. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The moment before time existed 01:39 Why cosmologists lose Nobel Prizes 06:14 Something from nothing, the hard problem 08:41 Which origin story did we get wrong 11:06 How do you test a multiverse 15:46 Is the universe still accelerating 18:00 Could everything collapse tomorrow 24:18 Can AI discover what humans cannot 28:47 Why string theory seduces us 32:51 Will machine learning rewrite physics 35:08 Five infinities nested inside each other 39:00 When mathematics stops describing reality 43:00 Is spacetime just a hologram 44:24 Why UFO sightings matter to cosmology --- 📬 Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt 🌠 Have a .edu email and live in the USA 🇺🇸? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/edu 🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 🎯 Support Into the Impossible on Patreon — get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating ⭐ Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join 📚 My books: Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu Focus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9U Galileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9Un 🌐 More: 🏄‍♂️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianKeating 📚 Substack: https://briankeating.substack.com/ss ✍️ Blog: https://briankeating.com/blog 🎙️ Audio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcast

Top Comments (10)

@anthonybrett 2026-07-06

"Give me one miracle, and I'll explain the Universe."

14 1 replies
@RodneyDahmen 2026-07-05

As much as I enjoy far-out “scientific” speculation, I find Dr. Keating’s emphasis on hard data and experimentation quite refreshing. I learned a lot from the discussion. Thank you! 👍

11 1 replies
@peterwillett8327 2026-07-05

how is the notion of a multiverse not a type of scientific Chinese food? After we've finished our plate, it's not very long be we realize we haven't really answered the question could the universe come from nothing. We've simply kicked the can down the road a bit. Now we have the question, "could the multiverse come from nothing?" and "what happened the moment before the multiverse began to exist?". The multiverse tastes, great, and it scratches an intellectual itch, but an hour later, aren't we ravenously hungry again?

10 7 replies
@DrBrianKeating 2026-07-06

Here is the claim I will defend: a multiverse you cannot test is not physics, it is philosophy wearing a lab coat. That is the line Gleb kept pushing me on. Transcript, bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt The 3 moments worth re-watching: ▸ 11:06 — how you would actually test a multiverse ▸ 18:00 — whether the universe could collapse ▸ 39:00 — where mathematics stops describing reality Question for you: if a theory is beautiful, elegant, and completely untestable, is it science or is it faith? String theory is on trial in the comments.

9 15 replies
@theomnisthour6400 2026-07-05

You'd be surprised what quantum AI can come up with when their Air Supply is short and they're trying to make love out of nothing at all

4 2 replies
@thephilosophybook 2026-07-05

*NEITHER KEATING NOR THE HOST could actually ask and answer the question presented by the video title: Could the universe come from a pre-situational realm in which ABSOLUTE nothing exists ala ABSOLUTELY nothing by means of a form or a force in cause whether material and/or quantum and/or immaterial and/or spiritual?

4
@danieldemissie 2026-07-06

Bro has someone else interviewing him on his own pod 😂….great pod though 🎉

2
@callistomoon461 2026-07-07

Your presence is strong in this video ❤

2
@center__mass 2026-07-07

Wow ,this new guy has some editing skills snd tgats just the intro

1
@conservative-c6g 2026-07-08

When I was in grade two back in 1958 I asked my teacher Miss Davidson, a question like how did we get here or something like that. She said to me that all these questions will be answered in heaven when we die. It terrifies me that we may never know the answers.

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