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

Pan, by an amazing coincidence, my wife and I are both Cancers. I was born June 25th 1971, she born June 25th, 1975 And I am glad you are with us today. I'm cursed/blessed with Krone's disease. Sure, not as bad as a rare muscle disease. But I have learned to deal with the cards I have. It looks like you have too. Wow your story there, brings a tear to my eye. Count on Love, people. It is something from nothing.

I get it, but I think I tried to explain in one of my earlier posts that the concept of a void or nothingness depends ultimately on our initial conceptions of somethingness being negated. Hence our very definition of nothing depends on a conception of something, which is why when we say nothing we think it is a thing. It is characterised by the things around it, near it or in it. So we always treat it as 'nothing' rather than 'no thing'.

I'm waffling now...

The idea of nothingness being something is perhaps best symbolically represented by the old scientific view of space. What we now know to be (almost) a total vaccuum, they believed was a substance called ether: "The element believed in ancient and medieval civilizations to fill all space above the sphere of the moon and to compose the stars and planets"

So because they could not conceive of nothing (a psychological blight) they imagined an invisible, untouchable, unperceivable substance.

But I really want to know is, what is the latest theory on conservation of energy - can it be created from nothing, or does it have to be converted from matter? Any physicists out there who can help?

cheers,
Rob

"Sorry...never met a physist I could trust. I lived with one for several years who was always trying to trick me into marriage...
after I turned him down nicely. Then when I left him, he sued me for 270 thousand dollars...for the loss of my services! HA! I had a fool for a lawyer...myself...but I won the Judges heart when he asked what I thought of being sued? I answered that if I'd have known I was that good, I'd have put a meter on the bed!"
"Talk about something from nothing..."

"I really don't think there is anything other than theroy, at this point in time!"

"Skylion, you're sweet, but don't waist a tear for me...save it for all
the people who REALLY need it! Thank you for the kindness. If you're anything at all like me, which you must be... tiaoist you...
we'll become good friends. I wish you well. Learn from your disease. (DIS...EASE...what a word huh?) If you'd like to chat please join me on my Chat With Me Here thread...we'll surely get scolded for not sticking to the topic at hand at some point in time.
Trust me on that."

Something coming from nothing is considered a physical impossibility. I say it is considered because the laws of science forbid it, "Energy cannot be created or destroyed" It is important to note however that before Einstein's theory of mass-energy, it was considered a physical impossibility to generate energy from it. My point is that laws are broken, but in their time they are LAWS.
Laws are disputable things, often proven wrong, often re-written, often discovered. In any case, a scientific law requires a certain amount of faith on the part of anyone who believes in the law. This faith is not considered "blind-faith" because there are experiments and repeated observations that support the validity of a law. The same thing applies to a christian, buddhist, mormon etc... their faith is placed in a concept that isn't as blind as you may think, only disputable. Their is scientific evidence that the earth is young, approximately 7000-10000 years old, but there is also scientific evidence to suggest that it is very old. Disputable situations arise all the time but to say it is a blind faith would be to criticize your own faith in the integrity of science.
We have faith in the scientist who conducts the research, that they are impartial and objective. We have faith that the research findings are correct, that nothing whent wrong and went unnoticed. We have faith in what we see, smell, touch, hear and taste, that they are real. There is one major question you have to ask about nothingness: What is between my hand and the table over there? Repeat the question for each answer and you will probably get to: What's between the nucleus and electron? The question can continue until nobody can answer it. What is nothingness?
Some thoughts to consider.

Testing 123!

Sorry - wrong number! I was trying to call A1324252

Have we all solved the question ? If so, someone please tell me the answer?