Maybe the universe is a demo written by the gods in <4kb
It has a many aspects one would want from a good universe.
Infinite detail. But not "boring". The digits of PI have infinite detail too, but when you don't know the algorithm itself, they probably look just random. Which would be boring. But the Mandelbrot set exhibits many nice patterns one can learn and reason about.
The algorithm that creates the Mandelbrot set can probably be implemented in less than 400 bytes.
2k64sw32sh7sz[.]0:p[,]1:p[:]2:p[o]3:p[]4:p[O]5:p[@]6:p[ ]lz:p5lw/si4 lh/sj0 2-dsxsu0 2-dsysv[0 2-dsxsu[luSalvSblzdsnSq[lqSn0Sq]Sm[laddSoSs LoLslb2* SoSsLoLslbd-lu+Salv+Sbcladlbd+4<mlqd1-Sq0<g]sglgxladlbd* +4 0sr[1sr]st>tLrln;pPlilu+ Sulu2>h]sh lhx[]pljlv+Svlv2>f]sflfx
So then the question becomes what is the absolute minimal hardware and software configuration that you could use to generate a mandelbrot?
There is a tradeoff to be made between (algorithmic) information specified as a program/software versus an interpreter/hardware http://www.hutter1.net/publ/ctoex.pdf
However, all we really need is a Turing-complete runtime, which can be very simple, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_110 https://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/accidentally_turing_comple...
One easy way to make our universe is to run all possible programs (even if you don't think our universe is computable, we would still end up running simulations which are indistinguishable to arbitrary precision). We can even apply an anthropic argument to this: that the vast majority of programs are not universes conducive to containing life, but we must necessarily find ourselves in one which is.
Because there is no way to evaluate how "minimal" a configuration is.
No matter which elementary property you assume the universe to have, one would have to ask "Is that a complex thing?". Is gravity complex? Is an electron complex?
1. https://www.youtube.com/c/CloserToTruthTV
My understanding of an answer I've heard is along these lines:
If there is truly nothing then that means there are also no bounds/limits/rules, which means there is nothing stopping everything from being. Out of nothing comes the boundless cornucopia of existence, from complete lack of constraints that is nothingness.