AMA | September 2022

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Welcome to the September 2022 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patrons, whittle them down to a more manageable number -- based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good -- and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

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3 thoughts on “AMA | September 2022”

  1. Brian Whit

    What a great teacher you are, what clear accessible answers to profoundly deep science and math.
    Hopefully your new job will not keep you from Mindscape or something like it. Your new students will have the higher chance in figuring out how to think for themselves. Good luck

  2. Roger

    As to whether or not “nothing” can exist: First, I think we have to figure out why any “normal” thing, like a book or the concept of a car exist. My view is that a thing exists if it is a grouping.  A grouping ties stuff together into a unit whole and, in so doing, defines what is contained within that new unit whole.  This grouping together of what is contained is manifested as a surface, or boundary, that defines what is contained within, that we can see and touch as the surface of the thing and that gives “substance” and existence to the thing as a new unit whole that’s a different existent entity than any components contained within considered individually.  This surface or boundary doesn’t have some magical power to give existence to stuff. But, it is is the visual and physical manifestation of the grouping together of stuff into a new unit whole or existent entity.  Some examples of groupings are 1.) the grouping together of paper and ink atoms to create a new unit whole called a book that’s a different existent entity than the atoms considered individually; 2.) the grouping together of previously unrelated elements to create a set; and 3.) even the mental construct labeled the concept of a car is a grouping together of the concepts tires, chassis, steering wheel, use for transportation, etc.  Here, the grouping is better thought of as the top-level label “car” that the mind uses to group subheadings together into one.

    Second, it’s very important to realize that there’s a difference between the mind’s conception, and definition, of “nothing” and “nothing” itself, in which no minds are there. In the mind, which exists, and in our definition of “nothing”, “nothing” just looks like the absence of all things, so it doesn’t seem like it can exist. But “nothing” itself doesn’t have the constraint of having to be defined in our minds as being non-existent.   Whether or not “nothing” itself exists is independent of how we define it or talk about it. This is also why just talking about “nothing” does not reify it.  Our talking about “nothing” has no impact on whether or not “nothing” itself exists.

    Finally, the reason I think “nothing” itself does exist is this. When you get rid of all matter, energy, space/volume, time, abstract concepts, laws or constructs of physics/math/logic, possible worlds/possibilities, properties, consciousness, and finally minds, including the mind of the person trying to imagine this, we think that this is the lack of all existent entities, or “absolute nothing” But, once everything is gone and the mind is gone, this situation, this “absolute nothing”, would, by its very nature, define the situation completely. This “nothing” would be it; it would be the all. It would be the entirety, or whole amount, of all that is present. Is there anything else besides that “absolute nothing”? No. It is “nothing”, and it is the all. An entirety/defined completely/whole amount/”the all” is a grouping, which means that the situation we previously considered to be “absolute nothing” is itself an existent entity. It’s only once all things, including all minds, are gone does “nothing” become “the all” and a new unit whole that we can then, after the fact, see from the outside as a whole unit. One might object and say that being a grouping is a property so how can it be there in “nothing”? The answer is that the property of being a grouping (e.g., the all grouping) only appears after all else, including all properties and the mind of the person trying to imagine this, is gone. In other words, the very lack of all existent entities is itself what allows this new property of being the all grouping to appear.

    Anyways, that’s my view on why “nothing” itself is actually impossible because even “nothing” itself is an existent entity, or a “something”.

  3. Paul Gentry

    How exactly does James Webb Telescope see way back to 300 million years after the Big Bang? With the universe being about 14 billion years old and Earth only about 4.5 billion years old, wouldn’t the matter used to create our solar system and light emitted from the celestial bodies being observed at that specific time already have passed us by? Does the light from these bodies get affected in some way? I’ve heard a lot of one sentence explanations for why we’re able to see images from 300 million years after the Big Bang, so could you offer some more details on how this works?
    Thank You!

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