question:
can you measure darkness?
muchafraid
Maybe you can measure it in terms of light. If there is total light, there can't be darkness. If there is no light, there is 100% darkness.
P.S. Jars of Clay is one of my absolute favorites, muchafraid.
http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/smile.gif)
Maybe I should clarify that post a little more.
Can darkness be measured with an instrument? No. But darkness can be measured relative to light. There must first be light, for darkness to exist, since darkness is the absence of light.
I couldnt agree more, thank you. Jars of Clay is also my favorite.
muchafraid
Without Light, there would be no Darkness, and without Darkness, Light would be meaningless.
That is the paradox of the Force; The Dark Side can never truly defeat the light, so long as one pure heart remains, but nor can the Light Side ever gain a true victory.
As an artist, I need to use both light and darkness. Without the darkest shadows, any work is empty, a bare canvas with no purpose.
------------------
"The Beasts know much that we do not." -Ancient Jedi proverb
you measure darkness by the absence of light
Point: in a universe were there was only light...no shadows, no differentiation of any kind...what meaning would the light have?
The light needs the dark to define itself.
Take this notion to its greatest extreme: the universe itself. We have creation (the big bang) working against entropy. Without entropy, creation would just go on and on, until the universe was just one, dense singularity. Very hot, very massive...and very boring. Now, without creation 'pushing' against entropy, the universe would just suck itself down into nothingness. Not much going on there. So the universe itself uses these two opposing forces to balance and define each other; both 'are,' both are 'real,' and each is necessary for the existance of the other (in our universe, anyway.)
Does that example help us look at our light/dark question? Light is energy...it 'is.' The dark is not nothing, but an absence of that energy...it 'is not.' Both concepts, 'is' and 'is not,' are equally important to the way our universe operates.
So, I suppose it would be possible to measure darkness. It would require a photosensitive instrument which measured the ambient light level of the scene in question. The instrument would be calibrated by putting it in a dark box (no light) and setting that value as maximum, then pointing it at the sun (the brightest light we're likely to find for reference around here) and setting that value as zero. The instrument should then be able to tell you how much of the scene is darkness, and how much is light.
<font size=1>I think.</font>
------------------
"The entire universe is simply the fractal chaos boundary between intersecting domains of high and low energy."
You don't measure darkness. That is like measuring how stupid someone is or measuring how fast you are not going. It is not a presence, it is an absence.
------------------
And there he is. The reigning champion of the Boonta Classic, and the crowd favorite-TheAhnFahn
Well, it's all black-and-white, as far as I'm concerned...
http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/wink.gif)
I personally prefer light... The dark meat is just too... yucky...
too... juicy?
Ike: the other, other white meat
http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/wink.gif)
Instead of cloning sheep they should create a turkey made of all white meat.
Now that would be impressive.
muchafraid
The Mad Scotsman Cloning Laboratories would like to introduce, for the spring of 2000...boneless, self-basting hogs!!!
Tired of paying for all those bones at the butcher's counter, only to throw them away? Or how about all the hassle of removing them in the first place...? Well, our new boneless, self-basting hogs slice up lickety-split, with no bones about it! Hog farmer's love raising them, too, 'cause a boneless hog won't try to run off on ya--hours of fun, watching them poor buggers try to stand up. Haw! Haw! Haw! *Snort--!*
http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/biggrin.gif)
------------------
"The entire universe is simply the fractal chaos boundary between intersecting domains of high and low energy."
I'm curious, muchafraid.
question:
can you measure darkness?
What prompts the question?
--wiz
I was curious to see as to how people would respond. Darkness is the absence of light. Can darkness be measured with an instrument? No. But darkness can be measured relative to light. There must first be light, for darkness to exist, since darkness is the absence of light.
Yes?
http://www.jediknight.net/mboard/wink.gif)
muchafraid
[This message has been edited by muchafraid (edited April 28, 2000).]
...which would seem to relate to your observation in another thread:
It is my belief that evil is the absence of God...
--wiz