Thanks for the interesting history, Orac.
The problem with the question in the way that you are answering it is that you think real numbers have anything to do with real world physics
A large part of the problem is that you are reaching that sort of conclusion without any justification. I make no such assumption about the Universe, and if you were able to take my questions and reasoning at face value, instead of trying to force them into a confused and confusing mathematical mould, you would understand that. Interestingly, in this forum you are urging me to study complex numbers in order to solve what you perceive as my "problem"; and in TNS, Pete, who you will remember from his brief sojourn in SAGG, is urging me to study calculus for the same reason.
Possibly the key question from the OP is:
If there had ever been (absolutely) nothing, could there be something now?
Pokey's answer: "I would not think so. What would anything form from?" is concise, reasonable and lacking in extraneous maths. It also anticipates the question that would naturally follow an affirmative answer.
I accept willingly that mathematics is the best language that humans have yet found to probe the mysteries of the cosmos, but I don't necessarily accept that there is some grand mathematical model on which some preexisting intelligence designed the cosmos, and that we cannot even think about the nature of existence unless we discover the mind of some mathematical God.
