Q&A What "is" nothing?

On Jan 3, 2005, at 12:31 AM, Robert J wrote:

what is nothing anyway? I want to know nothing ASAP, so I can order for it.
regards, Rob

To which I replied:

Hi Rob,

Sorry I took so long to write about nothing. The answer is nothing isn't.

Isn't it interesting that the romans had no zero? There was no concept of what zero was. Zero is something even if only a placeholder when crossing from positive to negative numbers on a chart or equation. In fact, zero is the new 1.

Nothing however, is not. Nothing exists not even as a place holder for something. I find it fascinating that there are no (zero) good words to describe nothing in english. The word I'm stuck with incorporates the word "thing" as as the basis of what "it" isn't. The word nothing exists, so if you were to ask me "what is nothing?" I would have to say what I just said. Since you really asked "What is nothing anyway?" I would also add, nothing IS in only one way. Nothing is a word, a word with meaning.

This word "literally" means "no thing" or "absence of thing".

I hope that helps you with nothing.

--Xymyl (KON)