Imagine you are sitting in your room, bored out of your mind, wondering what you can do. Reading, no too lame, hang out with friends, nah later tonight, so you naturally, subconsciously even come to the conclusion that you have NOTHING to do. When, quite the contrary, you have everything to do. For instance, you must breathe, you must think, articulate, formulate, etc. This concept of nothingness is non-existent, at least to us. The application of this concept is important to think about the edge of the universe. I discussed the edge of the universe in a different blog, but the focus will be beyond the perimeter of our known universe.
Image Credit: Discover Magazine
To first understand this idea, let’s delve into what nothingness is. It is, quite simply, the existence of nothing. No atoms, molecules, rocks, plants, humans. Nothing implies that whatever it is, it is not thinking consciously or subconsciously, and that processes aren’t happening. In essence, it can’t be defined, classified, or even recorded. It is nothing after all.
Applying nothing to the universe and its intricacies, let us look at the edge of the universe, assuming it has an edge. (This is a debated question among scientists, is the universe finite or infinite, but thats for later) Anyways, the edge of the universe, what is it? Could be circular, rectangular, or have no shape at all. The edge is important because it simply defines the barrier between something and nothing. Just like your brain defines barriers between you and your surroundings. Same concept, different application.
Beyond the edge of the universe is true nothingness. It is the idea that there isn’t anything that exists, no laws apply, and nothing matters. Some beg to question why this is important, and to be honest, this concept is more important than anything else.
Image Credit: NPR
It is important to grasp the idea of nothingness because it is THE boundary. However big our universe is, there has to be a boundary. This boundary is defined by nothingness, but we as humans have never experienced this. So, what is outside the nothingness. If nothingness is true, and the universe has an edge, does that mean that there are other universes outside of ours, not parallel universes, but physically outside our universe? For example, it would be Our universe, Nothingness, Another universe. Therefore, it is clear how crucial it is to understand this boundary, as it does define the edge of our known universe.
Unfortunately, knowing what nothing is is something we as people have a hard time to grasp, and fathoming a boundary defined by nothingness, only raises more questions than it supplies answers.
This post taught me a lot about nothing. It was interesting to think about the concept of nothing in more depth. As I don’t think about it regularly, it was challenging to come up with a clear definition for nothing. This description/definition that you included for nothing was helpful and allowed me to go through the rest of this post as you talked more in depth about the concept.