<story><title>Why Understanding Space Is So Hard</title><url>http://nautil.us/blog/this-is-why-understanding-space-is-so-hard</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kazinator</author><text>The question &amp;quot;would space still exist if matter disappeared&amp;quot; is posed with an ontological bias which influences the answer.&lt;p&gt;A better question is: does a universe in which there is nothing (and never has been) still contain space? (Though a better question, I wrecked it by introducing &amp;quot;never&amp;quot;, which presupposes that the universe has time---even though it contains nothing, and therefore no events take place.)&lt;p&gt;The question creates a bias because when we imagine matter being removed from the universe, we firstly imagine the removal as an event unfolding in time. Secondly, we continue to imagine the locations where pieces of matter &lt;i&gt;used&lt;/i&gt; to be, and those locations continue to be separated by the abstract space which we continue to imagine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pdonis</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; does a universe in which there is nothing (and never has been) still contain space?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Within the framework of our best current theories, the answer is yes, in the sense that flat Minkowski spacetime, containing no matter or energy anywhere, is a valid solution of the Einstein Field Equation of general relativity.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Understanding Space Is So Hard</title><url>http://nautil.us/blog/this-is-why-understanding-space-is-so-hard</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kazinator</author><text>The question &amp;quot;would space still exist if matter disappeared&amp;quot; is posed with an ontological bias which influences the answer.&lt;p&gt;A better question is: does a universe in which there is nothing (and never has been) still contain space? (Though a better question, I wrecked it by introducing &amp;quot;never&amp;quot;, which presupposes that the universe has time---even though it contains nothing, and therefore no events take place.)&lt;p&gt;The question creates a bias because when we imagine matter being removed from the universe, we firstly imagine the removal as an event unfolding in time. Secondly, we continue to imagine the locations where pieces of matter &lt;i&gt;used&lt;/i&gt; to be, and those locations continue to be separated by the abstract space which we continue to imagine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ratsmack</author><text>Time is simply a measure of change, so if there is nothing to change how can there be time?</text></comment>