Firstly, understand that this is a self-defeating exercise. To describe Nothing, we must use the antithesis of Nothing – something. To even comprehend it, we must understand, which is itself a concept, a thing, a non-nothing. No matter how closely I can describe it, I will never do it justice, because Nothing in a collection of words is as useful as explaining infinity to a rock. The best description would have been to leave the page blank, but as I have already begun with words, so I will continue.
So imagine you are out in space, except there is no space. You close your eyes and see the sort of Nothing that looks like what we might describe as “black” on the colour spectrum. Now realize it’s not like that at all. Instead, there is the clearest ocean. It is infinite – no bottom, and no sky above it. It encompasses everything, colourless, but at the same time it’s not anything at all. It’s an infinity mirror in the middle of this ocean that, no matter how deeply is peered into, shows only more ocean. It’s pure reflection without anything to reflect.
A philosophical thought experiment inquires of us, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Imagine that sound from your bedroom, ten million miles away. What you hear would be deafening compared to the sound Nothing makes. Its stillness is perfect, the only perfection that exists (and only because, as Nothing, it also doesn’t exist). Some philosophers argue that, even if the falling of the tree isn’t heard, it creates a sound wave, which is still mechanical, if not perceptible. Now I have another thought experiment for you: imagine a world without sound waves, without a spectrum of sound. If you were born deaf, then you are the closest to understanding.
To experience Nothing, is, of course, an oxymoron. It is akin to the space between sleep and dreams. It is less than simply death – it is death without ever having lived. The closest experience would be that of an aborted fetus, incapable of thought or sensation, not really yet being.
But deeper
than that, realize there is no comprehension of experience. It is inherently
insensible. Even disembodied thoughts cannot be. Nothing both exists, and yet
doesn’t exist at the same time, because even existence is something. There are
no planes. There is simply an infinite continuum without anything to continue –
not even time. But that’s where it gets complicated, because without space,
without time, there is something. There is the antithesis of infinity – finity.
This can be mathematically expressed as finite + y. But what is y?
And then,
following a passage of infinite hours, Something happened. I’m not exactly sure
what, but it probably has something to do with the variable y. It was an echo of the slightest whimper in frequency. A spark
on the ultraviolet spectrum. A fraction of a particle. And then, an explosion
that encompassed all of non-existence, and beyond.
This is the
way the world began.
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