what is nothing like?

can anyone here comprehend what nothing really is? I'm just sitting here thinking about the creation of the universe and that at some point there must have been nothing in the time before the big bang and before whatever caused it.
logically everything has a begining but how can something come from nothing in the first place?
Every time I try to think about what nothing really is I keep imagining a physical nothing if that makes sence. For example if the nothing before time was just a vaccume then my mind is compelled to picture it within a space. Kind of like space as we know it but without stars and galaxies in it.But that is still in my mind a physical place.why is it so hard to comprehend?

there truely is no such thing as "nothing". It's a catch all phrase for lack of substance (void)...since the concept of REAL "nothing" is beyond our conception, it cannot exist...

hell, now you got me thinking about it again...

if it was not something to begin with, how can there be nothing?

[Edited on 11-25-2003 by exdog]

"logically everything has a begining but how can something come from nothing in the first place?"

That is what we think, and I know for sure it is not right.

You are thinking through eyes of logic and reason, think through the mind of the universe.

Remember what we know isn't always complete and right.

Am I making any sense?

AAARRRGGGGHHH!!!!
That's my head screwed up for the night.
Something from nothing, nothing from something - quick, where's my pills??

I've thought about this thing many times - I try not to now as it's just something I'm never going to be able to understand

You are thinking through eyes of logic and reason, think through the mind of the universe.

I know thats the whole problem. Its logic and reason that enables us to function. the way I see it is that there are 2 options
first that there was nothing and then there was something
second that there was never ever nothing just always something

or is there a third explanation that our relativley underdeveloped minds haven't even considored?


oooooohhhhh dear my head hurts.I think I'm going slightly mad. Perhaps if I do lose all sence of logic and reason then I will understand it all. I'll be in a padded cell but at least I'll understand.

" Why do you think that substance has divine property? Is nothingness not as much a miracle as fufillment?"

DE

I just realized the mistake in the subject of this thread

what is nothing like?

duh! how can it be "like" anything?
its an impossible question to answer because how can you compare it to anything cause it's nothing.Even giving "it" a name makes it something.

see my problem?

Pantha. I too have dreamt of this, and when I discuss with it family and friends, they smirk and change the subject. Nothing...I guess nothing, in religion terms, God sat back, and created. The Heavens must have existed, but Humans might say "What about when heaven was not there". We cannot imagine infinity, which gets most humans stuck.

Good post

-wD

Originally posted by pantha
I just realized the mistake in the subject of this thread

what is nothing like?

duh! how can it be "like" anything?
its an impossible question to answer because how can you compare it to anything cause it's nothing.Even giving "it" a name makes it something.

see my problem?

your problem? - it looks like this thread is going to be a lot of people's problem. particularly if looking at it in a logical and reasonable manner - it can't be answered.
you won't be alone in the padded cell. we'll all be there trying to figure out the answer too
I want the cell nearest the kitchen

good thread, pantha



[Edited on 25/11/03 by funlovincriminal]

It's just like the definitive answer to this question.

It is deffinatly a question without answer because if there is nothing then there's nothing there to cause the something.
Lets just face it , we don't really exsist.

I'm just gonna give up now before my brain turns to goo.

Originally posted by pantha
can anyone here comprehend what nothing really is? I'm just sitting here thinking about the creation of the universe and that at some point there must have been nothing in the time before the big bang and before whatever caused it.


Nothing ... would be like ... what happened to those people in the Lawn Mower Man. FRrfttthppttZZzzzZ

well i like this topic because there is no nothing think about u r constantly doing something thinking about something there is never nothing maybe at the start but then there would need something to create something so it is insane

It is more difficult to understand nothing than infinity, even though they are closely related.

But some people manage to understand nothing nonetheless.

Think of the time before you were born. Can't huh? Just remeber that billions of years went by without you being here.

Thats basically how I imagine nothing, as I like everybody else, was nothing for a long, LONG time. And of course, the return to nothing will happen within the blink of an eye.

good point heelstone. I had just come to a similar conclusion when I woke up this morning. I don't remember dreaming last night so it seemed to me that I had gone to sleep and the time that passed between then and me waking up I wasn't aware of so in my mind there really was nothing. I suppose you can't imagine nothing while you are awake and aware of your thoughts.
So although I still can't comprehend that there was once nothing I can kind of understand what nothing is "like" if I try to remember the 7 hours that I slept for last night.
But you have raised another question when you say that everything will return to nothing one day. Do you think that the universe will finish in the same way that it started? Don't you think that there will be some sort of remnant at the end of it all? Unless the universe when it finishes expanding moves back in on it's self at a speed that would cause time to move backwards and therefore return to the nothingness that it came from.

[Edited on 26-11-2003 by pantha]

Well in vaccum and 0.000000000001 degrees Kelvin they (scientists) have still found a small amount of energy in every part of that vaccuum. It could be a structure called a field and matter arises from it. Call it Zero point energy, or the Higgs field. IMO this is the "nothing" there is no matter when it's purely this field and it's beyond space and time.

This is a nice illustration on how it's formed.

www.pparc.ac.uk...

More info here in my thread here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And in my post in this thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

This subject is really way over my head.The way that I read it is that the higgs field is kind of nothing?
So we are nearly down to nothing but not quite. It is the closest that you can get to nothing right? and that the introduction of one single particle can cause a chain reaction that causes a whole lot of something.But if there was truly nothing then the space that the higgs field is in wouldn't be there.
I'm sorry but I've only got a 17 year old "o" level in physics so I find this hard to grasp. I really regret not learning more about it. Perhaps one day I will take the plunge and learn some more cause I think that all the answers really are there if we just know where to look.

not trying to be an ass or narrow minded about this but what the hell kinda question is that.
Nothing is no thing, thats just it. all there is to it. the absence of all things tangeable.

I don't think he was asking what nothing is like (despite that being the title of the thread), but if anyone can really comprehend nothing. When I think nothing, I just think of a big black something. But even that big black something is still something and not nothing. It's impossible to have any idea of "nothing".

Apparently, black is the absense of all light and white is the presence of all light. But it would have to be very black, since even the darkest places have a slight bit of light in them...

Grah.