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OF MATTER, OF MASS, OF ATOMS.
ATOMS MAKE UP MOLECULES. MOLECULES MAKE UP MATERIALS. AND EVERYTHING IS MADE OF THAT.
BUT ATOMS ACTUALLY ARE MOSTLY EMPTY.
FOR EXAMPLE, IF THIS BALL WERE THE NUCLEUS OF AN ATOM,
,
THEN THE ELECTRON CIRCLING THIS...
WHICH WOULD DESCRIBE THE OUTER LIMITS OF THAT ATOM,
WOULD BE OUT BY THAT MOUNTAIN OVER THERE, ROUGHLY 20 MILES AWAY.
AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN IS EMPTY.
IN FACT, THE UNIVERSE IS MOSTLY EMPTY.
HOWEVER, WHEN WE GO DOWN IN SCALE, IN THE EMPTINESS,
WE EVENTUALLY COME TO A LEVEL,
THE FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL OF SPACE-TIME GEOMETRY.
THE FINE BASEMENT LEVEL OF THE UNIVERSE...
WHERE THERE'S INFORMATION, THERE'S A PATTERN.
IT'S CALLED THE PLANCK SCALE.
AND IT'S THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE.
AND AT THAT LEVEL, THERE'S INFORMATION THAT'S BEEN THERE SINCE THE BIG ***.
SO MOST OF THE UNIVERSE, EVEN OF MATTER, IS ACTUALLY EMPTY.
MOST PEOPLE THINK THAT THE VACUUM IS EMPTY.
BUT FOR INTERNAL SELF-CONSISTENCY...
OF QUANTUM MECHANICS AND RELATIVITY THEORY,
THERE IS REQUIRED TO BE THE EQUIVALENT...
OF 10 TO THE 94 GRAMS OF MASS ENERGY.
EACH GRAM BEING E = MC2 KIND OF ENERGY.
NOW, THAT'S A HUGE NUMBER. BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN PRACTICALLY?
PRACTICALLY, IF I CAN ASSUME THAT THE UNIVERSE IS FLAT--
AND MORE AND MORE ASTRONOMICAL DATA...
IS SHOWING IT'S PRETTY DARN FLAT--
IF I CAN ASSUME THAT, THEN IF I TAKE THE VOLUME--
OR TAKE THE VACUUM WITHIN A SINGLE HYDROGEN ATOM,
THAT'S ABOUT 10 TO THE MINUS 23 CUBIC CENTIMETERS.
IF I TAKE THAT AMOUNT OF VACUUM AND I TAKE THE LATENT ENERGY IN THAT,
THERE IS A TRILLION TIMES MORE ENERGY THERE...
THAN IN ALL OF THE MASS OF ALL OF THE STARS...
AND ALL OF THE PLANETS OUT TO 20 BILLION LIGHT-YEARS.
THAT'S BIG. THAT'S BIG.
AND IF CONSCIOUSNESS ALLOWS YOU TO CONTROL EVEN A SMALL FRACTION OF THAT,