The physical universe (PU) is the universe we know. It obeys physical laws and we can do inductive or deductive reasoning about it. However, there are parts of the physical universe that fundamentally cannot be explained. It’s not a matter of doing more research and thinking to fill in the gaps of missing information, but rather these aspects of the physical universe are qualitatively different. Therefore, I introduce the concept of an external universe to explain these parts of the physical universe.

The main characteristics of the external universe (EU) are the following. I argue that the following phenomena in the PU cannot be explained on a fundamental level without the existence of an EU:

• EU contains the source of information originating the PU
• EU contains the source of information originating each subjective experience in the PU
• EU contains the source of information determining the outcome of randomness
• EU contains the source of information determining the outcome of free will
• There are multiple sources of information in the EU that are distinct
• All information in the EU is fundamentally uncaused and generative
• The EU is outside of the PU. It is not additive to the PU, but it affects the PU.

Let’s take each statement one by one:

1.EU contains the source of information originating the PU
Trying to explain the origins of the PU is a difficult task, and it cannot be done from within the framework of the PU. Any such attempt leads to either an infinite regress of events causing other events, or giving up on the question completely, or performing an illogical mental jump that requires the creation of something out of nothing. There is no amount of research that can be done to explain an ultimate question of why there is something rather than nothing. Therefore, the source of origination has to come from outside of the PU, hence from the EU. In the EU, the source has no cause or explanation by definition.

2. EU contains the source of information originating each subjective experience
Apart from the fact that the PU is described as an objective reality, some hypothesize the existence of subjective experiences. However, then the question is how do these subjective experiences come about, and in particular what decides that a given observer is going to experience one subjective experience versus another. I argue that this task is fundamentally impossible to explain, and hence the information determining the existence of each subjective experience has to come from the EU. Each subjective experience has a distinct source in the EU. It is distinct, because each subjective experience can unambiguously tell which first person point of view they belong to. Having a single external source would mean that each first person perspective would be unified, all belonging to one, whereas having no external source means observers of subjective experiences simply would not exist. Once the source of the observer of a given person is determined in the EU, the rest of their existence is explained in the PU, by DNA, people having sex and development processes, and bran waves creating thoughts.

3. EU contains the source of information determining the outcome of randomness
Most randomness in the PU is only pseudo random, meaning that it can be deterministically derived from the state of the world. It is just a matter of gathering all the required information to make a prediction. However, in case there is true randomness, how is the outcome of the random event determined? For example, what value will a sample from a uniform distribution take or how is the decay time of an atom determined? The answer is that the information that determines the sample outcome has to come from the EU, and it must be fundamentally uncaused.

4. EU contains the source of information determining the outcome of free will
Free will can be regarded as a source of decision making that is non-deterministic, i.e. cannot completely explained by the state of the PU that results from the outcome of prior events, and non-random, i.e. it is not arbitrary. If free will was deterministic, consider what would happen if you predicted what someone was going to do 100 years in advance and you showed it to them. Will the person have the option to choose otherwise, in which case your prediction was wrong, which is not possible? If so, how would the person decide how to act? The only explanation is that their decision making has to be truly random, or more precisely it has to be generated the same way as random numbers are generated. The outcome of such a decision cannot have any probability distribution imposed upon it, in which case it would be predictable. Hence, the source of free will must come from the EU and it must be a fundamentally unexplained phenomenon that is non-restricted in any way. Once the information from the EU enters the PU, causality is applied and can be used to explain how decision making works in the brain based on the environment.

5. There are multiple sources of information in the EU
As we have seen, the EU originates information regarding the birth of the universe, randomness, subjective experiences, free will, and others. These phenomena all have different information content and determine different things. For example, there is a clear difference between the existence of two subjective experiences, in addition it is clearly mapped out which free willed agent corresponds to which subjective experience. This shows that there are multiple sources of information originating in the EU, and such sources of information are countable.

6. All information in the EU is fundamentally uncaused and generative
The source of information in the EU all has the property that they are originating sources and cannot be explained otherwise. There is no causation in the EU, only generation. It contains the seeds of the PU. If we regard the events in the PU as a graph explaining causation, the EU contains the multiple roots of the graph that injects seeds of information into the PU. The leaves of the graph would be events in the present time that unfold over time. The EU is fundamentally generative in nature.

7. The EU is outside of the PU. It is not additive to the PU, but it affects the PU.
The PU includes everything there is in the universe. So strictly speaking, there is nothing outside of it. Yet, the EU is outside of the PU. In a way, adding the EU to the PU will still result in the PU. One could regard the EU as an empty set, but with elements inside it. This looks like a contradiction, but one must note that the framework of logic and reasoning is difficult to apply to the EU as it can only work consistently within the PU. The reason is because the EU only contains the generating sources, but as soon as those things are generated, they enter the PU where they are subject to the laws of PU. One can regard the EU as a collection of brute facts, that live outside of the framework of the PU. For example, the EU contains the information that tells you why you are the person you are, i.e. why your observer first person point of view is tied to any particularly conscious awareness (See point 2.) Yet, in the objective reality of the PU, strictly speaking there is no first person point of view. So this information comes from outside of the PU, but nonetheless affecting the PU.

The question of this post is that suppose there exists an EU as described above. What other properties can we derive about it based on our observation of the PU? So far, I've listed 7, but there could be more.