“ ‘Why is there something, rather than nothing?’ ” / A Memorable Fancy #404

Robert Morgan saw seven new titles in the university library on that subject, and 15 older ones as well. Having just been laid off as Assistant Professor of Physics he had time to look through all of them; and so he did.

After a month of head-spinning study, having found nothing like a satisfactory answer, it occurred to Robert that the question itself must somehow be wrong: irrelevant, meaningless, or an answer would already have been found.

The question “Why is there something, rather than nothing?”, he observed, tacitly assumes that there is a “something” in the absence of which there would necessarily exist a “nothing,” as if “nothing” were a kind of “something.”

But, he confided to a friend one night over drinks, what if there is no “something” at all, and no “nothing” either. Every thing, every thought, every event is mere potential, he offered: what could be, could have been, may never be. Isn’t.

“The bark of the dog,” he said cryptically, “that didn’t bark in the night.”

His friend, not really existing, didn’t care to have drinks with Robert anymore after that.

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See www.terencekuch.net for a profile of the author, publications, reviews, etc.

Terence Kuch’s speculative fiction novels * may be purchased directly from the publishers or via his Amazon author page, www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch

    *The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA; praised by Kirkus Reviews.

    *See/Saw: a literary adventure from Ink Smith Publications about implanting memories, and a murder.