Blank space is not a thing but an idea because there is no such thing as it. Nothing cannot exist because in existing it becomes something. You have now attained enlightenment. See also: nowhere, nobody.

I've got a customer at the bar who builds molecules for a living. He holds twin PhD's in atomic physics and molecular chemistry and pulls in something like a quarter million a year playing mad scientist.

The fact of the matter is that Dr. Brent doesn't really know much about molecules at all. He's certain that they are made up of atoms and that these atoms are in turn composed of protons and neutrons and electrons and that these are really just tightly bundled quarks doing a manic dance in the ether.

Dr. Brent will tell you that an atom has a definable wall and that within this wall the quarks do their dance. He will tell you that all of the known mass in an atom could be equated to a basket of melons in a football stadium, a basket of Buicks in some cases but a tiny percentage of the whole in any event.

"So what's the rest of the atom made of?"

"Blank space."

"The undefined bulk of the building blocks of everything is blank space?"

"Yep. Cool, huh?"

Every time Dr. Brent opens his eyes he sees a world that he knows is not really there. His Volvo, his mother in law and the great pyramid of Cheops are all just so many quarks in a vast sea of nothingness, conspiring to create the elaborate illusion of substance.

The end result of his four decades of study of ultimate physics is that he's not sure why he doesn't fall through the floor when he gets out of bed in the morning.


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