Examination of Nothing by Larry Pace

There seems to be a discussion of nothing going on here. David Walters and Judith Bailey have written about nothing.

Most modern musings about nothingness are existential meanderings profoundly influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre's thinking, especially as outlined in "Being and Nothingness." In a littler lighter tone than usual, one wag has created a "Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook." I quote the Tuna Casserole Recipe below:

TUNA CASSEROLE

Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish
Place the casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light. (source:http://www.pvspade.com/Sartre/cookbook.html)

Interestingly, there is also an emerging science of empty space, which assumes that the "vacuum" of space contains fields, particles, and fluctuations, and there is therefore no such thing as an absolutely empty space.

According to Henning Genz, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, "...every particle has its antiparticle of opposite charge and that particle plus antiparticle are nothing but an excitation of the vacuum…every real particle-antiparticle pair can annihilate into a pure energy excitation of the vacuum. These are the results that count; and the uncertainty relation tells us that pair creation and pair annihilation happen in the vacuum at all times, in all places."

The assumption that each particle and its oppositely charged anti-particle can combine to produce an excitation of the vacuum that thus annihilates both implies that the entire universe ultimately contains very close to zero energy and matter, thus very close to nothing in the grand aggregate.

I decided that I also have a little something to say in a poem about the subject of nothing.

NOTHING: A POEM

Knowledge of empty
Space containing almost nothing.
Particle, anti-particle charged opposite
Annihilating
Opposite charged particle, anti-particle.
Nothing almost containing space
Empty of knowledge.

Editor's Note: Nothing moves me to respond to the misconception of Nothing in the near future.


Dear Editor: I feel you are getting mixed up about nothing!! Nothing is "no thing" (Full Stop) A space ship could not go into nothing--it is going into space which is clearly something. If there is nothing, then you cannot sense it, touch it. see it, or be aware of it in anyway. You most certainly couldn't go into it--there is nothing to go into--- Unless of course you are seeking to alter the meaning of the word. Hope this helps to increase both yours and Professor Pace's understanding  which is clearly lacking. I have really NOTHING else to say. $;-) Respectfully, Gerry

Dear Gerry: I'm afraid you have completely missed the point, which is, by the way, non-dimensional. Editor

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