The answer I prefer is to say that the Nothing and the Everything are
the same Thing. (or rather that they are complementary aspects of the
same thing). Its a bit mystical I know, but the inspiration comes from
the notion of duality in Category theory - for example in the theory
of Venn diagrams, the universal set and the empty set are closely
related (one can find a transformation whereby any theorem expressed in
terms of universal sets can be transformed into an equivalent theorem
containing empty sets).
Hal Ruhl tried a theory based on logical contradictions inherent in
nothings and evrything, that he posted on this list, which was kind of
interesting...
Cheers
Eric Hawthorne wrote:
>
> In the spirit of this list, one might instead phrase the question as:
>
> Why is there everything instead of nothing?
>
> As soon as we have that there is everything, then we have that some aspects
> of everything will mold themselves into observable universes.
>
> It is unsatisfying though true to observe that there of course cannot be
> a case in which the question itself can be asked, and there simultaneously
> be nothing in that universe.
>
> I'm with the last respondent though in thinking that the right answer is
> that there is BOTH nothing and everything, but that the nothing is
> necessarily
> inherently unobservable by curious questioners like ourselves.
>
>
> Norman Samish wrote: Why is there something instead of nothing?
>
> >Does this question have an answer? I think the question shows there is a
> >limit to our understanding of things and is unanswerable. Does anybody
> >disagree?
> >
> >Norman
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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A/Prof Russell Standish Director
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Received on Mon Nov 17 2003 - 00:34:27 PST