[extropy-chat] something rather than nothing

[Heartland]

Jeffrey:
>> If you imagine the "condition" of nothingness where...

gts:
> Problem for me is, I cannot imagine nothing no matter what conditions you
> might try to ascribe to it.
>
> T'aint possible for anyone to imagine nothing, I say, because to imagine
> anything is to imagine something. And any kind of something is not nothing.

I don't think imagining something is a necessary condition for that something to 
exist. Nothing does not become something just because imagining nothing is 
something in itself. I doubt our thoughts have the power to influence reality.

It's easy for me to imagine nothingness (absence of everything). That doesn't mean 
that nothingness is even possible. Again, thoughts alone do not appear to alter 
physical laws or whether they exist or not.

But that is obviously different from "subjective nothingness" which is not only 
possible but happens all the time when our brains disintegrate. I see no reason to 
doubt that subjective experience after death is not equivalent to subjective 
experience at potential nothingness.

H.