Paul,

Mathematically, nothing is zero. Which is the point between positive and negative. The flatline between the ups and the downs.

A temperature of absolute zero would be a completely motionless state, of perfect equilibrium.

It’s assumed that reality begins with this vacuum fluctuating, but that raises the question of what is doing the fluctuating? Strings? Yet would/could the string exist, if they didn’t fluctuate?

So what comes first? Being, or doing? Or is it just Sinatra; Dobedobedo.

The opposite of nothing is everything, as the opposite of the absolute/zero, is the infinite.

Space is both equilibrium, as the frame with the fastest clock and longest ruler is closest to the equilibrium of the vacuum, as well as infinite. Three dimensions are just a coordinate mapping device, like longitude, latitude and altitude.

So maybe it is tension between the absolute and the infinite, that creates “stuff.” Light radiating toward infinity, while mass/form coalesces toward equilibrium. Galaxies.

Bubbles of being, between everything canceling out and everything fading out.

Personally I think we should have a bubbles theory, rather than a string theory.