So, this seems to be the trouble with a lot of “theories of everything”: they have no “theories of origin”. Complicated things and complicated situations are supposed to just exist at the foundations of a “theory of everything”, and no questions are asked about how these complicated things and situations came into existence.
Various types of mathematical universes or information-theoretic universes are supposed to just exist for no reason at all. But there is nothing logically necessary about a mathematical universe, or an information-theoretic universe or any other sort of universe-structure, except perhaps logic itself.
What IS logically necessary is a “something” that created the basic structure of the universe, and a “something” that knows about this structure. So, it has to be assumed that creativity and consciousness are the necessary logical aspects underlying every proposed universe-structure, but no logical reason can be found for the existence of the logical aspects themselves.
Basic aspects of the structure of the universe can be represented with man-made mathematical symbols that represent categories (like mass or position), relationships between these categories (i.e. laws of nature), and numbers that apply to the categories.
But the logical aspects of the universe can only be represented with man-made logical symbols, the types of symbols used in computer programs like IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE, and THEN.
When combined in various ways, together with the mathematical symbols, statements containing these logical symbols can be used to represent the necessary logical aspects of the universe:
- Consciousness/ knowledge. Simple knowledge of the structure; collated knowledge of the structure; the analysis of knowledge; and the construction of higher-level conceptual categories.
- Creativity/ free will. The creation of structural outcomes that are not the result of law of nature relationships.