Physicists have been thinking about this for a long time, and I seem to recall having seen it pointed out before that the question of a space-time that never had matter in it could be different than one that had it but somehow had it removed. Which then implies the possibility that the space-time has a state in it, in which case, where did it come from and where is it being stored?<p>Given our current state of understanding, there really isn&#x27;t a need to insist that one question is wrong and some other question is better, seeing as we are currently equally incapable of answering any of them.