[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles

[R.Coyote]

Ok Ill try, I'm sure the resident physicists will butcher this, I apologize
in advance

Why is there something instead of nothing,  is because in the natural world,
the entire idea of nothing as such  is illusory, there are  only
something(s), it is like asking what is ten miles north of the north pole.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience at pobox.com>
To: "Damien Broderick" <thespike at earthlink.net>; "ExI chat list"
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2003 5:49 PM
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles


> > Why is there something instead of nothing?
>
> "I don't know" is an acceptable answer here.
>
> I can add things like... "but I strongly suspect it's a wrong question,
> because I run into paradoxes when I try to analyze it" or "Are you sure
> there *is* something instead of nothing?" or "Maybe if I fully answer 'Why
> do people think there is something instead of nothing?' the question will
> go away."
>
> Nonetheless, "I don't know" is an acceptable answer, and it remains my
> answer for the moment.
>
> --
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
> Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
>
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