Two weeks ago, John and I had the wonderful experince of going to a debate about nothing. Yep, that's right, absolutely nothing. It was a wonderful two hours of listening accomplished writers and physicists discussing Nothing (capital "N"), the contemporary philosophical and scientific understanding of the existence nothing.
The 14th annual Issac Asimov Debate was hosted by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Mr. Tyson was astounding. He gave the audience, and people watching live via the Internet, the footmarks and layman's translation of all the many theories and contextual elements of such a discussion. He did a wonderful job presenting the subject of the night in an entertaining and educational fashion.
What is nothing? Nothing is nothing... There is no absolute understanding of nothing. Some arguments involved gestures of space behind one's head, or dreamless sleep, or the understanding of the lack of consciousness prior to birth. Nothing in galactic terms was also difficult to explain. Can nothing exist within a vacuum? But if it's in a vacuum, then it therefore exists with something...And so on...
It was wonderful to see top experts in the field of science and philosophy discuss a topic seemingly simple, but inherently complex and perplexing. Ultimately, the realm of human comprehension extends into many fields and subjects, so witnessing such a presentation was thought-provoking and remarkable to say the least.
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