All things being positive

Or “De-Relativizing The Absolutes Of Reality.”

Consider the following:

If you have five apples and subtract or “take away” six, what is the result?

• If you respond that it is a deficit of 1 apple meaning you either require or owe one more unit to resolve the scenario, that is likely the most accurate description.
• If you answer that you have created an anti-apple which has the capability to erase one apple from the universe, then this article is for you!

Although the context of the numbers in a problem such as this is arbitrary, in reality a negative result does not mean it is the antithesis of the measured item. A practical interpretation is that you are indebted a positive value of those quantities to someone else!

This condition is even more apparent in algebra.

• Multiplying positive values retains a positive result.
• Multiplying an odd number of negative values, even with several positive values, results in a negative result.
• But if you multiply an even quantity of negative values the result is again positive.

This is because the negative sign is not reflective of the number value itself. A negative value, again, is not an anti-value. In algebra, it is simply an absolute value in the opposite direction!

Being a frequent error made in manual computation, I’ve seen it suggested as a best practice to treat all values in algebra as positive and resolve the minus signs apart from the numbers. One can separate minus signs from their attached values by converting all negative values to their absolute (positive) values multiplied by (-1). This allows one to consolidate and more simply monitor all of the “direction changes” often simplifying the computation of the equation.

Again, the minus signs are not themselves intrinsic to the numeric value.

When computed values are graphed or placed on a number line, the point or slope or curve is referenced from an arbitrary (0,0) point. Whether the origin has meaning, it is ultimately relative to the solution being sought. A negative position on a Cartesian plane does not mean reality at that location is in reverse! Those points are simply left-of-center relatively.

We tend to view physical reality in relativistic terms which is convenient. And from a young age we are taught that concepts like left and right, hot and cold, or fast and slow are intrinsically “opposites”. But science shows us that the universe is fundamentally comprised of only absolute values. Negatives or opposites do not in fact exist being relativistic interpretations of phenomena.

To elaborate:

Making a left turn is like a value to the left of the origin in a number line. It may be in a different position, orientation, or direction, but is not an “Opposite” choice, just a different one.

If you clap your hands together, they don’t cancel themselves out of existence. They are two differently formed hands but hands nonetheless.

Cold is technically just less “hot”. And since heat is scientifically the motion of particles, the theoretical state of non-motion is the value of 0 Kelvin. All particle movement, regardless of orientation, is an absolute positive amplitude. A negative temperature value has no purpose.

This is the same for a vacuum which, by definition, is simply the absence of matter. There is no negative matter, subtractive space, or vacuous energy. Relatively, you can be less than an arbitrary mean, but you can’t be less than nothing.

All things, be it matter or energy, can only be extant. And there is no known mechanism for energy to become non-extant.

But what of antimatter? Surely the most expensive and volatile substance known to man which we synthesize in hadron colliders must prove that there is a true negative potential in the universe. I would agree if when matter and antimatter collide only empty space is observed. Instead, their brief interaction results in a massive release of energy, not anti-energy (which, interestingly, does not exist). The result of their interaction is a positive value result equivalent to the absolute sums of their potentials.

This is, therefore, a false antithesis since “Antimatter” is an exotic state or configuration of matter that is unstable in proximity to what we consider typical “matter”. And simply because the materials are not stable in the presence of one another does not mean the one has an inverted existence. That would be like calling Cesium “antiwater” since it’s submersion in H2O has explosive results.

Being that we are trying to describe the functions of the universe from within the experiment, we are not afforded the convenience of an outside perspective from an absolute position. However, the conflation of relativistic measurement and scientific absolutes can be confusing. But rest assured, the universe is not a zero sum game.

Although this may sound more like Descartes than Einstein, we exist because we exist. There is no negative value doppelgänger or a down side to our wave of existence that, when our paths cross, will negate our existence leaving no trace of our former selves.

In conclusion:

There is no “zero sum” in the universe. Only positive sum!

The universe is full of energy that can never be canceled. Nowhere in the universe is truly dark since light (in one form or another) is everywhere!

At the most fundamental scale, nothing in the known universe can erase you from existence. We are made up from ancient stardust, and will persist in some form for eternity. And that is a scientific fact!

And I will end on that positive note. Thank you for reading!

To get an idea how much positivity exists in the universe, check out this article where we use a novel calculation method to estimate the real standard model particle density of the universe!

If you want to comment, critique, or just say “Howdy!”, drop me a comment or an email!