there needs to be a mental concept of “nothing”.
Good stuff all, however, there is one additional caveat to your above and our finite, occupied space existence of Universe, that, you did not include and that is the truly macro-infinite non-occupied space outside of meta/beyond the finite occupied space aka Universe.
This the basis of my Cosmic Trinary Outline/Set.
1} Eternally existent and complementary to the below 2 and 3, meta-space mind/intellect/concept and ego { spirit-1 }
-----conceptual line-of-demarcation----
2} eternally existent as truly meta-non-occupied space, outside of the following,
3} eternally existent, finite, occupied space Universe ---spirit-2, 3 and 4---.
...3a} spirit-2 physical reality of fermions, bosons and a new third set that is hybrid of those two, may be eternally existent, or briefly pop out and back into existence. This brief moment may be likened to the concept of virtual particle brief existence,
....3b}spirit-3, eternally existent occupied space Gravity ( ),
.....3c} spirit-4, eternally existent, occupied space Dark Energy )(.
Yes, I know the cosmological scenarios say Dark Energy came into existence some time after the initiating cyclic big bang. I dont think that is the case. It could always exist an vary in its degree of intensity { magnitude }.
From Wiki so take with grain of salt ;--).... "Dark energy is broadly similar to inflation and is thought to be causing the expansion of the present-day universe
to accelerate. However, the energy scale of dark energy is much lower,
10−12 GeV, roughly 27 orders of magnitude less than the scale of inflation. "
..." Since it is the
energy of space itself, then as space expands more dark energy comes
into the universe, causing the expansion to accelerate ever faster. If
dark energy is left unchecked, it is a scenario that could ultimately
result in a Big Rip that would tear the fabric of space–time apart."...
To be clear, in the latter above, if Dark Energy is increasing, ---"more dark energy"--- then either the finite Universe is transforming, occupied space realty, Gravity or both into dark energy, because, naught { energy } cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed.