> Maybe the author is assuming there are no elements in the universe that don’t follow quantum mechanics? Exactly, the author is assuming the universe is a qua

> Maybe the author is assuming there are no elements in the universe that don’t follow quantum mechanics? Exactly, the author is assuming the universe is a quantum Turing machine. > It seems like everything should have a chain of causality back to some thing. Except there has to be at least one uncaused causes, or else it’s just an infinite regression and not meaningful. It's not necessarily so. Models that aim to describe the universe before the Planck epoch are speculative. There are known theories that does not include uncaused causes as a necessary condition while being internally-consistent. They are often self-referential solutions to the Wheeler-deWitt equation. e.g.: The Hartle-Hawking state and some interpretations of Carlo Rovelli's QLG