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Is that necessarily true for all universes?

I suppose an empty universe represents itself. Or you could have a universe with matter distributed in the shape of https://xkcd.com/688/

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Can there be an empty universe? I suppose there is no "self" to represent then.

An empty universe would not have any information, or state change, and wouldn’t trigger any computation, therefore, it wouldn’t exist.

But if I include it as a variant in my Universe enum, then doesn't it exist anyway, at least as a concept, even if it's never constructed?

Then it's not a real universe but a mere symbol, I'd say. "Map vs. territory"

And in order for that symbol to exist (be expressed / thought of / conceived), it must be a part of some other existing universe that allows that...

But in which universe does that "map" exist? Boom, you've just created an universe containing a map out of a never-constructed-universe-containing-nothing.

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