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

Hey Friend
I havent read all the entries on this topic. But the topic is interesting. Can something come from nothing? I have a question for you? What does nothing mean to you? It means different things to different people. For some people "nothing" means the space, for some it represents something which we dont know anything about and for some it might represent something inspiring awe. Nothing may not simply represent nothing. Seems like I am trying to twist the fact? Well as of my opinion there might be so many molecules in "nothing" which might create something. As a child I always used to think about this "nothing" as I looked into the empty space above us, and used to wonder what is out there in this "nothing" that makes everything work. And finally when we dont find the answer to that we are forced to comfort ourselves by giving a name to it that it is all God's creation. But no one knows the answer to this I am sure. And I would be glad to know your thoughts about this.

Isn't it interesting that the TRUE thinkers in the world seem to have started wondering about unanswerable questions since childhood? (I've found in this forum you must watch EVERY word. Hence, the way danny won't let go of the inbred dog thing...) I very much agree that different people have different ideas of what nothing means. To me, I think it's a sort of simple thing...no-thing. A void. Where there is nothing. Nothing that we can see, hear, smell, touch...but some of us are able to FEEL it! A sort of sense that something was there at some time, but is no longer. Therefore, I tend to think that where there is nothing, there may have been somthing at some point in time.

Which came first? Something or nothing? Hmmmm...

Hum, neither a brand new idea nor a very witty one, too.
But, as my grandmother always said: "Everything's got a flip side",
which ment or at least should be understood to mean, everything has
a dark side, which is quite a bit darker than the almost dark front
side, other's may call it: "Every silver lining has a dark cloud inside", well, yes, she tended to be pessimistic in a way, I know,
but let's get back to the flip side, which I guess, is pretty interesting in that matter, because it goes: "Can Nothing come from Something?", isn't it?

I do not want to refer to politicians, first of all because the question would read "Can Nothing come from Someone?" then, which it doesn't, and second of all, that's a real flat one and be honest, if you'd ever would have won elections, wouldn't you be a politician, too?

So back to square one. "Can Nothing come from Something?"
That's a pretty delicate one. Because whenever anything comes from something it tends to be something and even when it looks as if it wouldn't be anything and we find out in the end that it caused whatever, it can't be told to be nothing.
So if nothing cannot come from something, where does it come from?
And if nothing comes from Nothing only, where the hell been the very first Nothing in this world? Nowhere?

I hope you finally will agree that "Can Nothing come from Something?"
is a question with a much higher scientific interest than the one you asked here, don't you?

Well isn't infinity merely definitely definity in an infinit way?

I think the very first Nothing was a cloud. From that cloud it raind Nothing. A puddle came from this rain. A puddle of Nothing. Out of this puddle crawled a creature. That creature got bored, because it was the only live form there, so it started to make Something out of all the Nothings it had. It made galaxys and planets and suns and alot of stuff.
This creature have sometimes been called God. We have other names for this creature as well, it depends on what religion you prefer. But the fact is that this creature hasn't got a name, because there is no one to talk to it.
So what I am saying is that Life, the Universe and Everything (or Something)were all originally made out of Nothing. And that's why the Universe is expanding all the time, this creature is still bored.
Nothing can come from Something because Something was made out of Nothing in the first place...
Thats my oppinion.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE CONCERT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Southend air-show is on Sunday and Monday, AND SKANDAL ARE THERE BOTH DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got diverted to Southend air show last year, as Mildenhall was cancelled. My God, was it ........ cold!!! Mind you, if Mildenhall isn't cancelled this year i reckon it'll be just as cold & wet!

Back to the question in question: one "something" that can come from "nothing" is boredom!?

Katsy: Just too cool! I would love to see a pic of SKANDAL, or a lock of hair, or drop of sweat...anything! Did the weather agree? I'm sure your inner temp was very high!!! I'm not jealous-I'm VERY happy for you! The only way I could be happier is if I were there too!!! Right there by your home...JUST 'TOO' COOL! Do you have a voice left?!? I lost mine at EVERY concert I went to! HA! It's a rare thing for me to like new groups...most sound as if they're re-creating the old stuff! SKANDAL has their own sound, don't you agree? And I really have only heard them about eight times on a BBC station.

Sgt. Zapper, sorry I wasn't witty-wasn't trying to be...could it be you picked up some of your Granny's pessimistic tendancies? AND, of course there are much greater scientific interests than what's been/being spoken here! However, we are here talking about OUR thoughts on the subject-not doing equations. Mere mortals thinking aloud, sharing views. Do I detect anger in what you write? If so, try to take this for what it is...conversation. If I've read more into what you're saying please forgive me. Mere mortal here. I've held elected positions, does that make me evil? I try to help folks whenever possible, and did so in the various local positions I've held. I did become angry whenever the news papers refered to me as a "community leader'. Rrrr, I hated that title. But when I moved away, all the functions I headed came to a complete stop! For no other reason than I wasn't there to tell the volunteers what to do...they all knew what to do, they had helped me for years! I guess I mention this because it's (what I feel) a prime example of something from nothing. I had ideas
that came from nothing (nothing else like what I did had been done before-nor since, at least in our Village, or anything I'd heard of).
Now that I'm back in the area 'the powers that be' are after me to rejoin 'the forces'. I live a 1/4 mile into another County & am not leagally able to hold office in the Village. Not that I would. Nor have I become involved in the Township where I reside, other than attend town meetings, freely giving my thoughts on various issues.
I hope you don't think I'm too stupid for my opinion to matter. If so, there's nothing I will ever say that you'll give a second thought. So,
when you see my name, just skip down to the next person. Don't want to waste your time...


Go Snikkers...I'll start roasting marshmallows...what happens next?!?
Remember, I don't believe in boredom. (I had to stay in bed for three months. Unable to do a thing. But I was never bored. I went into my mind and had all sorts of adventures!) Perhaps you could explain boredom for me? I'd be interested in how it occurs.

Hi, Pandora, you're back from the box.
Well if you detect anger I assume that you possess a real old fashioned angermeter and should have a look for the energy bank.
If you loosen the inner lid right on the backside under the
.5 inch outer shock resistant shiny steel plate you'll find
it. It bears a "Caution! High Voltage" sign with a nice oldfashioned
scull and bones symbol which you savely may ignore since there is no high voltage on an energy level that low.
The oldfashioned angermeter came out of fashion when users found out that the scale was kinda wrong. Wrong in the way that the max.
point always was reached when the batteries completely ran out of
energy. The simple reason was that an angermeter doesn't measure anger at all, but the mere opposite. So if no opposite of anger is detected the needle stands bold and trembling on max.anger. That stupid, really.
Generations of yound engineers retired in the search of a handy solution. But, what do I tell you about the angermeter history?
Just go and change the batteries, that's that easy.

Pandora...
Boredom is hard to explain. When one person is bored, another can be having great fun. So how we explain boredom does act on every person how they would explain it. I see that you are not easily bored and that's good. I am not easily bored too.
But when I was explaining how Something came from Nothing, I told you about that creature that we like to call "God". I'm not however saying that believing is wrong, I'm saying that it's based on a wrong fact. That creature is no god. It's just creature that got bored doing nothing at all, all the time.
If you were surrounded by Nothing, everywhere you look there is Nothing. Nothing to do, Nothing to say, Nothing. If you wish not to die out of boredom you'd have to think up a way to use those Nothings and maybe shape them into Something completely different. This is what happened, this is what will happen, this is what is happining.
If you still can't imagine what boredom is, try to suck out your brain with a vacuum cleaner, lie down in a little box and stay there for the next decade with your fingers in your eares. If you won't get bored, you must be some supernatural person who hasn't got "boredom" in it's vocabulary. And that would be a good thing.

Boredom is something i was never allowed to have, never allowed to say "I'm bored". I was told that if i was bored it was due to lack of imagination. In the end, it was good training - like others I just let my mind go & think about loads of things.
Suppose "one" thinks of God as everything: science, nature, feelings -etc., all rolled into one, i.e. what makes us, the world, the universe tick. Then we don't think of the little old man with a long white beard, which as we "grow up" we realise is quite an impossibility - even though the Greeks & other civilisations deeply believed in their "human" gods.
I hope you understand what I'm garbling on about!

Pandora: You just can't deny that Skandal are UTTERLY gorgeous and mighty fine! I'll admit it now, I'm in love with James! He's the one with the curtains and dark hair. I've never seen them on telly I've only seen them live and they are fantastic!!!!!!!! I love them all! You know that MATTY waved at me!!!!! AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, he's also fine but I'll probably die if James waves at me!!!!! If you want a reminder of what they look like go to http://www.skandal.net/band.htm or how their songs sound then go to http://www.skandal.net/music.htm , I quite like their song "Ready or Not" even though they are releasing "Champaign Highway" first. I can't believe I'm seeing them tomorrow!!!! ARRRGGHHHHH!!!!! I love them all so much!!!!!
I can't remember who said they were diverted to the southend air show last year but often it's really good weather in the days leading up to it then it's bloody freezing cold! This year it's been horrible weather during the week (it was terrible today) so maybe we might get nice weather for once, and if we do it can be a fantastic day out!

I LOVE MY SKANDAL!!!!!!!

At this point in time all I can say is, I'm glad everyone's so happy.
And I think I now understand boredom...hope I never 'catch' it!!

Time for a stiff night cap..pardon while I celebrate life..now THERE'S
something!!! Wonder where IT came from?!?

Well it's Sunday morning, first air show day AND THE WEATHER IS PANTS!!!!!!! I mean, of all days the weather could be so bad is TODAY!!!! There's been flash flood warnings and torrential rain all night! For flips sake IT'S ALMOST JUNE AND THE WEATHER IS AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's gone like February again, honestly, the weather at the beginning of the month was a lot better, I mean, it was boiling then!!!!! It's brightening up slightly now but it's very windy!!!!! The airshow hasn't been cancelled yet and I hope it's not, they're expecting over a million people mto flock into the small town today!!!!

I'VE BEEN KISSED BY 3 OUT OF 4 OF SKANDAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'VE GOT ALL THEIR AUTOGRAPHS!!!!!!!!
I GOT MY PIC TAKEN WITH 2 OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND MY FAVE MEMBER USED MY MOBILE PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

****************************I WANT DETAILS*************************
PLEASE COME TO MY HOME PAGE SO WE WON'T UPSET THE APPLE CART TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING...SINCE THIS IS SUPOSSED TO BE NOTHING, OR SOMETHING FROM IT......SEE YA' AT MY PLACE!!!*A very excited pan rushes off to start a place for Katsy to give details!!!*

IT being what?(celbration/life/night cap <stiff means your using too much starch&gt

Life is potentially the prime nothing bringer as life premotes the action of entropy, turning all the separate "something"s into one homogenous "nothing" (assuming there can only ever be one Nothing).

I can drop the thing about inbred canines anytime I like, I just choose not to (does this sound like denial?)

Nope-sounds like an Englishman to me
About my last entry...um,er, it's rather hard to say this...but I was alseep when I wrote it! HA! Honest!! I fell asleep in front of Mac &
awoke several hours later. While asleep, it seems that I downloaded something from a still unknown site! Changed the desk top to something that Mac dosen't even have! Tech support is cracking up about it...seems it's not unusual for people to fall asleep at the computer,
but this is the 1st time they know of someone 'sleep-typing'! I have no idea what I was talking about! My roomie said he woke me at the computer to tell me good night & suggested that I get to bed...I have no memory of that either. (He's told me many times that we've had long conversations when he KNEW I was asleep!) I even e'd one fellow who's mad at me & said some rather silly things to him & ended the note with kisses! It's too funny NOT to tell! Sooo, I don't know if that was a
something, or a nothing?!? I'll let your wisdom decide!
By the way picking on dogs really dosen't bother me. Mine treats me VERY well. Sometimes she even lets me sit on the sofa!

Skandal came out of nowhere....if that helps......

Unfortunately, the question itself puts blinders on us... There is no answer to the question "Can Something come from Nothing." Not only weren't we there in the Beginning to know what happened to Nothing (if, indeed, there ever was Nothing) to make it Something, but now that we have Something we cannot simulate the state of Nothingness we would need in order to experiment on it in an attempt to make Something of it.

For over one thousand years, orthodox Western Christianity has responded to the question with a definite "Yes," arguing that God created the universe from Nothing (ex nihilo fit). Other sects disagree. Before catholicity, the Church would either not have asked the question, or would have answered that the Universe was made from Something--that God took some inchoate Chaos and mushed it into the Universe like some kind of demiurgic Rodin. The Gnostics had all kinds of weird answers to this question--some of them deeply paradoxical, creative, and fascinating. In fact, most major religions presume there to have been Something before this Something that we know, but that this unformed or unmolded Something needed a helping hand in coming into the order we know and love.

Essentially, the question is one that serves only to illuminate that there are things beyond logic and perceived reality. And our ways of answering these questions invariably say much more about us than they say about the questions we presumed to have answered.