If you lookup the word “Nothing” on a dictionary you may find something like this:
Nonexistence; nonentity; absence of being; nihility
I found this definition by searching on dict.org website. So we all think we know what Nothing “is”. But do we know all its implications? What are its characteristics? Will things be different if “nothing” is really “absence of being”?
Some time ago I’ve stumbled over this exploded car picture (bellow). It looked intriguing and funny but something was missing… No kidding you’d say the darn thing is disassembled, what’s missing is “to be assembled”.
Exploded Car Picture (from: http://www.merchantcircle.com)
Yes, true the missing “part” is “to be assembled”. But wait “to be assembled” is not “something” right? It IS Nothing. You can’t touch it, you can’t feel it, but it has a great impact on the usability of the car. Or, more general said, the state in which the set of entities making the car, exists at any moment is deeply impacted by this “Nothing”.
So, something which is not material or energetic has a great impact on the usage of the car. Can we say the “Nothing” has an essential impact in the usability of the car? Based on the dictionary definition and any common sense “Nothing” should have NO impact on things. But here we are we just realized that it has a huge importance on almost all things which are made of components. But then, this idea is wired in itself. How come “Nothing” can impact anything?
In physics there is one dimension which is used to measure “complexity”, it is called “Entropy“. The Entropy of a system can increase when the system is more complex or can decrease when a system is less complex. A fully ordered system (whatever that means) is considered to have minimal (numerical) value.
If we consider the example with the exploded car, then it becomes clear that there will be a difference in entropy, when comparing the assembled product, with the disassembled set of components. You may argue about any “liquids” like oil, grease, etc. but let’s consider those as being present in the exploded picture as well (for the sake of making the point). So, even if we can’t touch or feel the “Nothing” it seem we can measure certain characteristics of it.
You may ask yourself what’s the meaning of this? What is it useful for? How will it impact me? To get a glimpse on this “utility” thing please remember that only not that much time ago, we had no idea what “electricity” was. Today, there are enough of us which still have no idea what “electricity” is but do pretty well in using it.
The issue with this, is that things you don’t know about can still have an impact on you, like it or not. It is said the “the things you don’t know about can kill you” and there are enough examples of this saying.
The main insight in this case is that, it seem our universe is made mostly out of this “Nothing” stuff, and the entropy concept can actually measure it. The other insight is that this “Nothing” seem to be responsible of the existence of all things including life. Also maybe even more important “Nothing” is the “mater” form which “Information” is made. And since our minds are pure informational entities (my strong belief) “Nothing” is “Everything” for us. It is in fact us. This does not implies though that we are Nothing, but only that we can’t exists without the Nothing. It can’t get weirder than this, right?
So, “Nothing” must be of some importance after all… wired… isn’t it?
The “Nothing” concept is another pillar on the model of the universe I’m pursuing.
