Tuesday, November 15, 2022

NOTHING?

I've been thinking about nothing. I don't mean not thinking about anything. I mean Nothingness, le NĂ©ant, emptiness. Here's a summary of what my thoughts have been playing with.

There's no such thing as nothing. What is philosophically or metaphorically or literally considered to be Nothing is actually the gaps or pauses between Something.

Look at the word NOTHINGNESS for instance: see the negative spaces between the letters?
That's the 'stuff'which gives each letter and the whole word its shape. An energy pushing and pulling space-stuff to form shapes.

Say the word aloud: the pauses your breath takes between letters or syllables, aren't they examples of the same energy translated into sound, like the pauses between notes sung or played on musical instruments?

We generally focus on the shape of things before we notice the space around them. But what if it's the other way round?

Suppose it's Nothingness which moulds shapes?

I made a rough initial sketch of this exploration.


2 comments:

Spongebelly said...

Modern (and not-so-modern) physics has often framed the most subtle of questions in terms of how to think about Nothingness. See recent summary article: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-physics-of-nothing-underlies-everything-20220809/

-Greg

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Hi Greg,
Yes! Many thanks for the link. Will look at it now.
I've been reading various views on the subject and writing my own notes around it. Might lead to a new project.
Do you know Robert Lanza's BEYOND BIOCENTRISM and Carlo Rovelli's HELGOLAND?
I think I mentioned the latter to you before.
Hope all's well with you.
Best,
Natalie