creation equation (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, February 26, 2017, 09:31 (2826 days ago) @ George Jelliss

GEORGE: Another interesting link
https://origins.asu.edu/events/materiality-vacuum
This time about origin of the universe rather than life.
Can nothing be something?

QUOTE: In modern physics we've discovered that it is very fruitful to regard empty space, or vacuum, as a sort of material, which can have exotic properties, like superconductivity. Conversely, materials can be viewed "from the inside" as the vacua of alternative worlds, which often have exotic, mind-expanding properties. These ideas suggest new possibilities for cosmology, and bring to life a profound question: What is a Universe?

Modern physics appears to indulge itself in fantasies that are no less “exotic” than those of religion. We now have highly respectable scientific theories about strings and multiverses and alternative worlds and the mind-expanding properties of nothing. Personally I have no problem defining the (but not “a”) universe in BBella’s words: all that is. The profound questions for me are (a) what does it consist of, and (b) how did it come into being? The first of these questions includes the unexplained world of quantum physics. However, if by nothing/a vacuum we mean an absolute zero/a completely empty space without any content whatsoever, I do not for one second believe that nothing/a vacuum can have any content whatsoever. If theoretical physicists believe otherwise, they will have to come up with new definitions of “nothing” and “vacuum”.*

*(They have already done so, in terms of a vacuum containing very low density gas, but even that is a far cry from it being a sort of material with exotic properties!)