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

Nothing is a very difficult concept to get your head around. In fact it is impossible. To say that a vacuum contains nothing is actually a bit of a misnomer. It contains gravity for one thing - otherwise there would be no space for the vacuum to exist in. Many years ago when I was a student, and no the world was not powered by steam, I had to grapple with the idea of nothing. The universe does not extend for ever and outside it is nothing. No light, no matter and no space. You cannot imagine nothing because there is nothing to imagine. Apparantly the idea of nothing has gained such a hold on some people that they have actual gone insane trying to think of it. So you have been warned

gravity only effects things that exist. gravity is actually caused by the effect of something pulling something else by changing the balance of the fabric of space by being a consequencial mass on the fabric which has an effect on other existence. since nothign does not exist it is not effected by the gravitational forces since the forces do not actually in habit anythign and it is simply the cgange in the fabric ofspace then nothign can exist where gravity would have an effect on existence, but not on nothing.

in theory, humans could never see or experience nothing, as where there is nothing there would be no light so they would not be able to see, and their existencewould disrupt the nothing that was there causing the nothing to move around the existence.

i doubt u have ever heard this theory before because i just invented it, and i may even right an entry on it. yes u r correct that outside of space there shoudl eb nthing, but how do we know that? how do we leave space? and doesn't our presence always interrupt the nothing so in reality humans will never know nothing as we are something?

oh questions, questions...

spook

Has anyone ever told you, in the nicest possible way, that you are a bit bonkers

Nope. They've told me i'm TOTALLY bonkers!

'I'm busy doing nothing...'

Nothing = 'no thing', not a thing, thingless, devoid of the identity of a thing.

'Whatcha doin'?'
'Oh, nothing.'

Not doing a particular thing.

'What was that noise?'
'Oh, nothing'.

Not a particular sound.

i just updated the entry. tell me what u think!

mmmm

Oh- nothing and sex? In Shakespearian English "nothing" refers to the female genetalia (you have no idea how long it took me to find a nice way to say that! ) on the grounds that "thing" refers to male genetalia and women have no "thing". Hence the play "much ado about Nothing".....

Great entry by the way....

Thanks!

spook aka

Might want to modify this header:

"But, if nothing is something, we must be possible to sense it, right?"

Maybe get rid of "we" - something like "it must be possible to sense it"


Can't you define nothing as just the absence or lack of something? I have a sense that I'm not holding an apple. I've labelled this sensation as "nothing". I just spent a night out. I sense that my wallet is empty, I label this as "nothing" or $0. Just a thought.

i've changed that subheader.

on your other point, if u have $0 in your wallet u do not have nothing in your walet, you have 'no money'. there are still such things like air particles in your wallet that you cannot see, as your wallet is not vacuum.

nothing is not actually a sensation, it is a lack of sensation, as sensation comes with existence.

spook

ok, i think the entry is totally finished now so one of you may like to take a look and tell me what you think.

thank you!

spook

I have nothing to say. Other than it reminds me alot of a speach that I help a friend write last year. We defined nothing as the absents of something.

I now feel like I know nothing.
I didn't have time to read all the klog of the peer review to see if this (rather bad)nothing one liner was used