BM: “in some places the number of photons was actually less than zero” –from the March 5th Economist, OR, Really loud and breathless monologue

“When a particle and an antiparticle meet they might explode and nullify time. We’ve never encountered that explosion, or so they say. Yet what if reality is reversing time to flee from that explosion? And we didn’t evolve for that chronology, so we don’t notice that God’s rewinding all of this? It would explain our fascination with History – it’s what’s coming! Do you understand? The smallest particles of the fastest thing in the universe, that feed life on this planet and let us see anything, are actively fucking around! There might be less than none of these particles in some places! An infinitely small teapot could be orbiting the sun right now. Fuck that! A trillion infinitely small teapots could be orbiting an electron in your brain right now! Okay, that’s scientifically preposterous, but the principle of a universe that acts against our prescribed laws when we aren’t watching it is staggering. Science, understanding how this universe works by checking, could be life’s own in-joke on itself. The vast majority of the universe is not being observed the vast majority of the time, so the whole general mishmash could be giggling at us right now! Teapots! Maybe that’s where life came from: the cosmos was tripping balls from not being observed, and poof, created observers! Plus, since particles have to react to each others presence in an non-conscious way, are they not technically observing each other physically? And thus is our presence about some of its particles not similar to us actively observing, even if we aren’t looking? The stimulation can be there on a nanoscopic level. So maybe some photons react to Saturn like it’s watching. So maybe they’re in order for a second, and at the speed of light, not again! Do you understand? No, of course you don't. If you did, your hair would be on fire!”