  In my opinion, nothing useful has ever been written on the question in the
title, and small is the contribution that I have to offer. I outline an
explanation for why there is something rather than nothing, an explanation
which, however, I believe is incorrect because it makes a certain empirical
prediction (absence of qualia) that is incorrect. Nevertheless, it may be
interesting to discuss this reasoning. It allows, in principle though not in
practice, to derive the laws of nature and all physical facts about the
universe. Then I elucidate which objections to this explanation are, in my
opinion, valid and which are not.
