This explanation of the origin of the universe, dark energy, and dark matter is based on quantum mechanics, general relativity, thermodynamics, and Shannon information theory. It envisions our universe beginning with a quantum fluctuation from nothing into an unstable closed space with our familiar three space dimensions accompanied by seven extra space dimensions, the four basic forces unified, and initial radius of the order of the proton wavelength. The compact extra dimensions collapsed to their ground state with radius of the order of today’s Planck length, injecting most of the entropy (information) in the extra dimensions into our three space dimensions and inflating them by a factor of about
e58≈1025. The constant ground state energy of the compact extra dimensions is related to the dark energy (vacuum energy) driving today’s accelerating expansion of our three-dimensional universe. With the usual values of G,
, c, and Hubble constant h
0=0.65, the dark energy fraction is
≈0.7. Immediately after inflation, the strong force acting only on matter was an effective “strong gravity” (about 10
38 times stronger than gravity today) causing 83% of matter to coalesce into small impenetrable closed systems interacting only by gravity and constituting most of the dark matter. Other universes may have formed similarly in the infinite sweep of cosmic time, but are of no practical significance because they are profoundly elsewhere. The holographic principle (a consequence of quantum mechanics, general relativity, thermodynamics, and Shannon information theory) indicates only a finite number (about 10
122) of bits of information encoded on the event horizon will ever be available to describe all physics within our universe. There are no sources or sinks of information outside the universe, so the universe must be described as a closed system. Matter dominance over anti-matter relates to the finite number of bits of information in the universe, as does the fact that theories involving continuum mathematics only approximate an underlying theory involving discrete mathematics. Ordinary matter constitutes only about 5% of the energy density of the universe. Holographic analysis of large scale structures composed of stars accounts for: minimum stellar mass as a function of time; the hierarchy of star clusters, galaxies, and galaxy clusters; and supermassive black holes. It identifies configurations of spiral and elliptical galaxies consistent with conservation of mass and angular momentum accounting for the 15% of bulgeless disks found in the survey of 15,000 spiral galaxies in the sixth SDSS data release. The smallest scale structures are usually described by the Standard Model of elementary particles, based on local quantum field theory. The Standard Model cannot be the final theory of elementary particles because: it incorrectly assumes neutrinos are massless; it cannot account for the bizarre mass spectrum of three generations of four Standard Model fermions; and does not provide the necessary non-local discrete theory of elementary particles. A holographic (and therefore non-local) preon theory involving strands with finite energy density instead of point particles can be outlined, but calculation in such a framework is difficult and gives no insight into the fermion mass spectrum.