RE: Why is there something rather than nothing? From quantum theory to dialectics?

['Chris de Morsella' via Everything List]

 

 

From: everything-list@googlegroups.com 
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of LizR

 

I hope Russell's theory of nothing is getting due attention.

 

Russell’s observation that “The ultimate theory of everything is just a theory 
of nothing.” seems intuitively correct to me… though I have no rigorous proof 
for this sense of it ringing true for me.

 

I was in ignorance that Russell had written a book on this; and just downloaded 
the pdf – so thanks Liz for bringing it to attention. Beginning to read it 
now…. 

Another excellent passage: “Something is the “inside view” of Nothing”. Nice! 
And this view from the inside looks so infinitely full of all manner of 
emergent stuff. I agree with the premise that perspective is paramount in 
coming to terms with and to understand the spooky weird nature of quantum 
reality; perspective also provides a powerful tool to explain the “something 
from nothing paradox”. Something does seem like it could be how Nothing looks 
from the perspective of being within itself – as opposed to the bird’s eye view 
from outside -- Max Tegmark uses Bird’s Eye view to describe this outside 
privileged perspective… looking down on the examined system from an outside 
perspective (even if that system, is everything that is… it is still valuable 
as an intellectual tool to be able to view this from the outside perspective as 
well).. but I digress, back to the book.

 

One question for Russell, wonder what his thoughts are on the continued 
viability of Quantum Loop Gravity hypothesis – which you mention as being one 
of the contenders along with String Theory – for the unification of all the 
fundamental forces into a single theory -- given the findings of the ESA 
experiment that has showed that spacetime must be smooth down to scales 
trillions of times smaller than the Planck scale. 

 

[If I recall they differentially measured the polarity of light from a distant 
and very powerful gamma ray burst over many wavelengths, from the hard gamma 
rays down through other wavelengths of light issuing from the same phenomenon. 
Their argument is that if space time was granular then this would have 
interacted with the passing light and induced a polarity bias that would affect 
different wave lengths of light differently. This is a I recall the details of 
the experiment. What they found instead is a lack of any effect – down to the 
incredibly small sub-Planck scale they were able to indirectly peer down into)] 

 

Doesn’t Quantum Loop Gravity require space time to be granular at the Planck 
scale? And if so isn’t the ESA experimental evidence a potential falsification 
of the hypothesis – at least as it has been formulated?

 

“Thus we should conclude the opposite of what we first supposed. Far from 
containing the wisdom of the ages, the library is useless, containing no 
information of worth. Our libraries are useful, not so much for the books they 
contain, but for the books they don’t contain!”

 

I detect an echo of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu in this statement. “The thirty 
spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty space (for the axle), that 
the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on 
their empty hollowness, that their use depends. The door and windows are cut 
out (from the walls) to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space 
(within), that its use depends.”

 

And so… by the same Daoist token, it is the absence of information that makes 
any given collection of information useful.

 

“The validity of the anthropic principle tells us that self-awareness must 
somehow be necessary to consciousness.” I agree with that; it is only by 
reflecting on the self and being aware of the self-nature we are observing that 
we can become conscious of its existence…. Of our existence.

 

“all laws of physics will eventually be found to relate back to some essential 
property of the conscious observer” – the fundamental centrality of the 
observer for understanding reality is an idea I have long found intriguing.

 

Excellent intro Russell.. I now know what I will be spending my Sunday 
afternoon (and maybe evening on). On to the next chapter.

 

Cheers,

-Chris

 

On 5 January 2015 at 08:26, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List 
<everything-list@googlegroups.com> wrote:

 

 

From: everything-list@googlegroups.com 
[mailto:everything-list@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kim Jones
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 1:09 AM
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Why is there something rather than nothing? From quantum theory to 
dialectics?

 

 

 

 


On 3 Jan 2015, at 5:17 pm, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List 
<everything-list@googlegroups.com> wrote:

If everything exists, what doesn't exist?  Nothing.

 

If nothing existed; would it remain nothing?

-Chris

Brent

 

You are both missing the main question: what was there before there was nothing?

 

Why, pre-nothing, of course.

-Chris

 

K

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