Null and Void

                Webster dictionary defines “Null and Void” as having no force, binding power, or validity. It is most widely used word in legal and transactional terminology. It is also used in scientific experiments for concluding the null hypothesis. A search for synonymous results void as one of the alternatives. It also means in simple words, emptiness or call for convenience sake vacuum (evidence of nothing).  

                The question that demands greater scrutiny, is absence critical or the evidence. Interestingly the rational mind chooses evidence. The scientific evidence shows vacuum having greater significance. Philosophically half full or half empty always drives the opinions one way or the other. Simple definition of vacuum is “absence of air”. Aristotle says nature abhors vacuum. This simply means objects could simply fly at impossible speed in a vacuum. Vacuum’s are of various implications. The Electromagnetic vacuum is the one which can slow down the speed of light. Gravitational volume is one which can bend the space. Clearly nothing bends the objects more than something. It is how we define it in the fist place. The observable universe radius is 46.5 billion light years (Astro.ucla.edu). Interestingly 99.99999% of all the matter we know is empty space. If we lost all the dead space inside our atoms, we would fit into a particle of dust, and the entire human species into a sugar cube (Massimo). 

                Another word that is close to our origin and understanding is Sunya. It has profound effect scientifically and philosophically. In Mahabharata, Draupadi is gifted with magical pot from Sun God. It is interesting to note how Lord Krishna rescues her empty pot to produce and feed from one grain of food. In 1277, the French bishop Etienne Tempier, says that God could do anything, even create a vacuum.

                Last couple of months the financial world have faced the inflation fears and have moved in risk off mode. Parallels are being drawn and extrapolation have been penned and hoped for. Zero (Sunya?) rate of change in inflation is welcomed. Absolute and relatives clubbed into one. One grain of softer data have produced greater hope and bulls have been rallying as if nothing ever happening or happened. Just like the emptiness, it is how we define the theory. We cannot see the emptiness if we remove the walls and light. To see that we need the light and that will be seen only at the end of the tunnel. While rational mind likes to follow, “I think, so I am”; philosophical mind demands silence of thoughts to understand the emptiness. Financial markets are not rational, nor philosophy leads one to the bank. The choice is not a null and void.