h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nothing is nothing, and this has a good scientific reasoning.

In space there is a vacuum, bt it isn't very good, there's still the odd speck of dust here and there, and as soon as the great heavenly vacuum has cleaned everything up, along comes a commet and meeses it up again. Scientists can do better, as they don't have commets to worry about, but eventually they start sucking atoms off the inside of the glass, which ruins their vacuum.

Even if there was a real vacuum, ie: nothing perminant in it, there are quantum fluctuations creating particles and anti-particles, elephants and anti-elephants over very small time scales, which almost immediately anhialate each other. But not instantly. Even a perfect vacuum has something in it, though not for very long.

So, to get nothing at all, you would either have to go outside the universe, or to http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk

Nephew Who Tapping on his console
"Indeed, outside our universe is the Big Void of Nothing. Our womb, our bringer of existance. While the universe expands the shockwaves of the retreat causes. That is every chronon the universe experienced another growing step. Have you read The Battle of Evermore? < A1065845 >"

'tis very good. Have you thought of putting it into AWW? It's a long time since something decent was entered there....

Traveller in Time catching a ghost on his head
"We have a request for the Spaced Out Guide, somewhere...."

Nephew Who Holding his journal
"As a matter of fact we proposed my journal for the Spaced Out Guide."

Ah some white space.
And only two months off the mark.
Well so am I then.

~jwf~

King Lear said "Nothing will come of nothing"; so far so good. But when he continued "Speak again" he showed our common weakness: we just can't be satisfied with nothing.