Is Nothing Something?
Where's Anything and Everything when we need them?
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
Although Heidegger described this as the fundamental question of metaphysics, the answer is quite straightforward at its base, if we are strictly examining a comparison between something and nothing. There is something because there is literally no such thing as nothing (at all), and there possibly never was. Spinoza and Einstein, among many other great thinkers, subscribed to this view that it is impossible for there to be nothing. Nothing is only ever the absence of something in particular, but it is never truly no-thing, since the very label ‘nothing’ implies ‘something’.
By now, my regulars know my brain, and how it goes off on weird tangents. I call those tangents Fabbit Holes (fabulous rabbit holes). It usually happens late at night, between wake and sleep, the space that makes me wonder which it was I was navigating in.
Command Central (my desk) is littered with assorted colored post-its with rando thoughts, madly scribbled in the dark, within that weird space between dream and thought. Puzzling, they’re just words, most of the time in order, but never with context. The title question implies that we need an answer, that we inherently require purpose to be made of chaos. Sense of nonsense.
So when I saw a Notes (digital) about Nothing, it gave context to one of those Notes (paper). I’m searching but can’t find it. Basically, it said someone called and asked what are you doing today? Nothing. Oh great, can you help me? No, I’m doing Nothing.
So, Nothing is an activity? Or inactivity? What else is Nothing? What do you want to do today? Nothing. What have you eaten today? Nothing. I’m actually talking about Nothing, as if it were a thing. What did you want to tell me? Oh, Nothing of importance. Is there Nothing of unimportance? Did you eat Nothing?
It sounds like a duck, but tastes like chicken. So, what is Nothing? I mean, thing is in the word. If not choosing is indeed making a choice, is Nothing Something? Some say it’s a metaphysical mystery. Others claim a cosmic conundrum. There’s a group that flips it by asking: What is Something? And then there’s God. Last I checked (this morning), God is always Something. And there’s Seinfeld. Anything?
I checked out the piece above which comes at the question from all angles. One school of thought is that human consciousness requires a cause and effect analysis for all things. At our dawn of Homo Sapien humanity, cause and effect was crystal clear: Something is dinner. Nothing is not.
Then we got all philosophical. We started cooking and musing, eating and wondering, and we questioned who and what we are. Where we came from. Could we come from Nothing? Are we explainable merely as an opposite to Nothing? Did we just happen without a predicate? Did we choose our own consciousness?
The absence of a particular thing is what we mean. It’s like when you ask your date what would you like to eat? And they reply I don’t care. And when they’re served tacos, they express that’s not what I wanted. So you care? But not enough to make the choice. Just to bitch about the choice you didn’t make. Got it.
So now, Nothingness can be perfect, but would kill itself. Sartre said it better, whatever. If it has an opposite, then it’s a thing. It’s our curious contrarian composition, first as fully human, and then as fully American, to game things out. To wonder why and how, and to attach significance to purpose. Input to outcome.
Why is there something rather than nothing? I vouch for ‘play’. Bear with me. Sartre writes in Being and Nothingness that a perfect nothingness would nihilate itself. It’s as if there is something in nothingness that must become something. So imagine, if you will, a pre-Big-Bang cosmic boredom. Now imagine it, in some fundamental way, seeking to become something. This implies a kind of experimentation, or play, for the sake of seeing what happens. And how can there be any ‘seeing’ without consciousness, which is as removed from nothing as anything could be?
Everything seems to exist for the sake of being perceived. Consider, for instance, secondary qualities such as light and sound. While we can easily imagine a universe of form and extension – primary qualities – without consciousness (specifically, without being perceived), secondary qualities are different. If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s around to hear it, it doesn’t make sound as much as disturb the air. The same goes for light: neither color nor sound exist without being perceived.
So why all this rather than nothing? To see what happens? Experimentation, perhaps? Play? In this sense, all perceiving things can be thought of as the eyes and ears of God. This has two major implications. First, there are ethical implications concerning how we treat other perceiving things, the imperative to minimize suffering. This brings up an obvious objection: pain and suffering seem contrary to play. But experiments often go wrong. And to pose suffering and catastrophe against experimentation would be to mistake it for some purposiveness with a fixed positive outcome, guided perhaps by some higher consciousness. I’m after something more impersonal. Secondly, consciousness distances us from nothing. So we can assume that the more it evolves, the further it removes itself from that nothing. Therefore, the higher the forms of play we engage in (art, philosophy, science, etc.), the greater the distance. So what better thing could we do with our sliver of something than see what consciousness can do? And what could push us further from that cosmic boredom than play?
D.E. Tarkington, Bellevue, Nebraska, USA
Inspect our idioms: Play the Devil’s advocate, take the other side, let’s look at this in reverse, play it backwards, walk in another man’s shoes. We live to dissect our behaviour and compare it to others to the point where we run our potential choices forwards and backwards incessantly, mostly searching for predestined validation. We define our success in a binary result: Something or Nothing.
Judging ourselves the predictors of purpose and controllers of consequence, we align the theoretical outcomes of our choices to our practical desires. Universely, we project those results to be positive. That’s the Something we desire. But what have we put into obtaining that Something. Nothing has never gone wrong. Ever.
Nothing. Nothing ever goes wrong. And when our desires go incredibly wrong, we say but I meant that. Or I didn’t mean this. Sure. Me either. Get in line. We never game out bad shit. We never plan for Nothing. We don’t say I'ma do all this shit, and then, I get nuthin. We always default to Something. Even Anything is better than Nothing. So to say. Everything is even better.
But after surveying the wreck, our tune changes. We say, Everything went wrong. What The Fuck. From Nothing to Something, totally absolving Anything, we arrive at Everything. First good then bad. Everything went wrong. I had a flashback writing this. Breathe. Was there Anything I could do? To prevent Everything going wrong? Yeah, Nothing.
Maybe this is a good point to Ask The Robot: What is Nothing?
"Nothing" is a concept that denotes the absence of anything. In various contexts, it can mean different things:
Philosophical Context: In philosophy, "nothing" often refers to the absence of being or existence. It is a topic of significant debate and analysis. Philosophers like Heidegger have explored "nothing" in terms of existential voids or the absence of something.
Physical Context: In physics, "nothing" might refer to a vacuum, an empty space devoid of matter. However, even in a vacuum, there are still quantum fluctuations and virtual particles, leading to the idea that absolute nothingness may not exist in the physical universe.
Mathematical Context: In mathematics, "nothing" can be represented by the number zero, which signifies the absence of quantity or value. The empty set is another representation, symbolizing a collection with no elements.
Everyday Usage: In everyday language, "nothing" often means the absence of a particular thing or the lack of any substantial content. For example, if someone says, "I have nothing to do," they mean they have no tasks or activities to engage in.
Overall, "nothing" is a multifaceted concept that changes based on the perspective from which it is considered.
Overall, "nothing" is a multifaceted concept that changes based on the perspective from which it is considered.
The Robot spoke a Human truth. Attaching thing to a word gives it some juice. Nothing. Something. Anything. Everything. We see things not just from where we stand, but from where we think. And from where we feel. We have power over words and concepts as never before - wielding them not only against others, but turning them on ourselves. Does Introspection cause Reflection or Projection?
Something is Everything. Nothing is Anything. We manipulate our words, internally and externally, molding our memories to the moment. As years roll by, we question those meanings and invent new definitions. We say Nothing when we mean Something. Anything becomes an excuse for Everything.
I appreciate the time we spend together, your eyeballs mean Everything to me.
Ric
Check out just the song below ~ and then a little flesh wound. Just for fun.
Grandpa Smitty introduced this to a 10-year-old. Awesome.
Thought provoking