September 2, 2020
There Is No Null
Null is not a value. Null, also known as "Nothing", is the absence of a value. The theoretical number zero is not null, it is only a representation of it. This is not an intuitive concept for humans; it is difficult to translate to practical, real-world experience.
It is an abstraction that has no real-world component. Stated differently, there is no "Nothing".
My nephew, Maximillian, once asked something to the effect of, "If you were to setup a camera just outside the Universe, pointed back at at it, what would you see?" While the inquisitiveness is admirable, the question is flawed; nothing exists "outside" the universe.
Stated differently, there is no "Nothing".
In basic math, it's easy to understand having one or two apples versus having none, or zero. It's easy because as the observer, you maintain a point of reference to them apples. But once the reference to apples is removed, there's nothing for the observer to not observe. You're only left with nothingness. If there are no apples, to what does nothing refer?
"Nothing" is occasionally considered a different concept from "Nothingness". Humans are indeed a curious animal. Only the considerations are of an abstract, academic nature. I'd recommend you read more on the subject but you're unlikely to leave the inquiry very fulfilled. Fulfillment is the absence of nothingness.
It's easy to forget how limited we are by our biology, not built to be stewards of this universe; we're merely temporary occupants. In the vastness of space, there is likely quite a lot of nothing, and more curiously, nothing built to understand it. It just is.
The "Primordial Existential Question" is akin to Maximillian's query, fundamentally flawed. The question, the basis for much theological belief, is "Why something rather than nothing?" In other words, if there is no meaning to the universe, why does it exist at all.
But there is no nothing. It just is.
And once again, I'd recommend you read more on the subject but you're likely to leave the inquiry unfulfilled.
It just is.
I recently told my therapist that only a fool would attempt to approach and understand the universe absent inebriants. Accepting modern society with this outdated hardware is a fool's fiction: we are grossly unprepared to adapt to modern civilization.
This is likely the reason anti-intellectualism exists. Inferior systems, incapable of adapting to a changing environment are left with only disruption. They are anchored to the animal of man. Still, while they embody the ugliest attributes of man, they do not encapsulate all of humanity.
At the apple's core are seeds, something early humans learned to cultivate. At the center of an onion is nothing.
While these phantoms of the false harken to the days humanity hid in nature's built caves, the elegant, glorious, civilized side of humanity marches onward. It is only with knowledge, math, precision, truth, cooperation and collaboration that modern man enjoys luxuries like pepperoni pizza, chimichangas, phones, movies, comic books, inebriants and so much more.
It is just to loudly state, "I matter."