Ask google "What Is the Essence of the Universe?" You will get millions answers and references for discussions. Your question is too broad and has been already asked millions times.

• New research suggests the universe is teaching itself physics as it evolves.
• The researchers want to use this study to spin off a whole new area of cosmology research.
• The “learning” of the universe is similar to evolution.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.03902.pdf

Yurii V Geletii> "Your question is too broad and has been already asked millions times."

Well, the dialectical view of the universe is that it is infinite, eternal and ever-changing. It's infiniteness allows endless questions to be asked and speculated on; about its essence; without any limit in number or in time!

I have my humble and specific questions and also some modest suggestions as answers, for others to consider. There is enough room for everybody, including you, Sir, to add or share your own; as it is open to all who cares about this question. As you can see, I have some humble scientific and philosophical contributions, along with other dialectical thinkers of history, regarding the nature and the essence of the universe, as we perceive it; and want to know more!

Stephen I. Ternyik : Thanks for your participation. But I strongly disagree with the so-called "autodidactic" universe suggested by the article you linked to. Unfortunately, it is typical scholastic sophistry of mainstream theoretical physicists and cosmologists, based on Kantian subjective idealism of brain-cooked logical/mathematical categories; which they impose on the external reality or the universe, making it a wishful autodidactic entity!. This is nothing but mysticism!

They are not talking about the dialectical notion of "matter in eternal motion", which is the fundamental condition of any existence and also the obvious essence of the universe as the Hubble Telescope pictures in the video I linked in the introduction, would suggest. Mainstream world view, which Hegel termed as metaphysics, has no clue about the origin of matter and motion; other than the mystical act of God, i.e., "Big Bang" creation! They talk of lots of models, mathematics, graphs etc. typical scholastic elements, but almost nothing about real universe, about matter, motion, galaxies, life etc. but only about “thought”, as if only thought (mathematics) exists in the universe and nothing else! So, for them the “universe” an abstract entity is only capable of thought. But it is matter, which is capable of thought (as a dialectical “unity of the opposites”!) “thought” can only “think” (autodidact) of itself! The autodidactic universe of these authors, is like idealist Hegel’s “Absolute Idea”. But the “Absolute Idea” (an autodidactic entity) is “absolute” only in the sense that Hegel has absolutely nothing to say about it!

For dialectics, the universe at its most fundamental level is a contradiction of abstract space and abstract time, which have no quality and present themselves only as endless quantity. This contradiction resolves itself, to a virtual reality (the quantum vacuum of virtual matter-antimatter particle pairs popping in and out of existence), which is a mirror image (i^2, I = √(−1)) of tangibly existing reality (physical universe) of matter in motion. For dialectics, “there can be no matter without motion and no motion without matter”. Matter is inert and lifeless substance (of Spinoza) that exist in various form in contradiction of the unity of the opposites of motion, which also exists in various forms including physical motion, life, thinking mind ( “thought” of Spinoza) and music (arts – the creation of the thinking mind)

The various items in the introduction represent the dialectical view of the universe and represents the exact opposite of the so-called “autodidactic” universe!

Your article: The Philosophy of Space-Time: Whence Cometh "Matter" and "Motion"? is very well known to me Abdul Malek With respect to Spinoza, the existence of the universe and of intelligence within it are ultimately expressions of the one substance; there is no intelligence without embodiment; there is no increasing complexity of embodiment without evolution; there is no evolution without a unique universe that allows life to emerge; and finally, as both quantum mechanics and the anthropic principle teach us, there is no observed material universe without intelligence within it. The same boundless power expressed by the complexity of the human body is also expressed by the powers of the human mind. Human beings do not occupy a metaphysically special place, except in so far as the human body is the most complex thing in nature, and therefore, its representation, or the human mind, is the most sophisticated mind in all of nature. In other words, the sophistication of the human mind corresponds to the complexity of the human body. This doctrine of mind-body correspondence is relevant to contemporary cognitive science, where there is increasing recognition of how intimately cognition and embodiment are related. We might say that Spinoza’s argument, put in modern neurological terms, implies that the total representation that constitutes each individual human mind is equivalent to the total activity of that individual’s nervous system, and each operates or functions in parallel with the other.This approach to the mind-body problem is appealing ,because it suggests that the mind is not extrinsic to nature, but is one part of an integrated dialectical whole.

Thanks dear Stephen I. Ternyik , for this profound and astute observation, which is the basis of materialist dialectics. Hegel reportedly said that to be a philosopher one has to be a Spinozist first! The question of this forum involves Spinoza’s “Extension” part of existence, namely inert, unconscious, blind etc., objective material existence and its manifestation and phenomenology as perceived by its subjective dialectical opposite “Thought” (characteristics of consciousness - life, the thinking mind - the highest and the most complex attribute of existence.

I have another RG question involving the subjective (Thought) part and its manifestation (evolution) as the primary contradiction of existence as par Spinoza; at the following link:

"What is the Most Fundamental Essence of Humanity?":

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-is-the-Most-Fundamental-Essence-of-Humanity