Notional Conservation

The various laws of conservation tell us that the universe is a zero-sum game. It doesn't matter if we can cheat by using anti-universes (-1 + 1 = 0) or multiple universes (-p + p = 0); in the end, it is all nothing. This is the notion of conservation, that things do not in the end make more than there was in the first place.

And so it is with human dialogue and society, with national conversations and debate, with all kinds of mortal conceits. In the end, all that is physical is conserved, and if the physical is all there is, the sum adds up to zero.