Is zero a number? Sounds like a simple enough question, but when posed to fellow ‘Undergrounders’ (members of our Underground Knowledge discussion group on Goodreads) it turns out to be quite complicated.
Keeping in mind ‘Undergrounders’ are global and from all walks of life, including professionals, academics and blue-collar workers, here’s a snapshot of what they think:
Lisa says: Historically it (zero) did not start out as a number, but as a placeholder (1, 10, 100, 1000, etc.) and to fill in empty columns. But as a human species, we like to complicate things…learning about stuff in more depth….science and shit….we are a bunch of crazies! Zero is not defined. Does it prove the presence of something? Does it prove the absence of something? In a mathematical problem, can you cancel out a zero?
Krishna says: …there r many anomalies in maths regarding 0…but if u see the decimal number system, it’s basically a set of repetitions… 00 to 09, then 10 to 19, and so on and if u see the next set, it’s 100,101,102……111,112……and so on… so here 0 is not treated as anything “special” but treated as other digits only…. so I think 0 is a number….
Harry says: It (zero) existed way before decimal systems. Babylonians (Mayans etc.) first had the concept of zero… “It began to take shape as a number, rather than a punctuation mark between numbers, in India in the fifth century A.D.,” says Robert Kaplan, author of The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero.
Masi says: Zero does have a value, it’s nothing. and it could be expressed as a word, symbol, or figure… (and) Less than zero just means it’s not a whole number, but less than it but it still has value.
James says: Ok, I’ve been converted to The Way of Zero. And fight all those (like Lisa!) who imply Zero is just nothing and not worthy 🙂 Acknowledge equal mathematical rights for Zero! Say no to mathematical discrimination! Yes 9 and 8 are the elite, but zero is a ground hero, forming a grassroots movement…trying to help those less even privileged like -1, -2, -3 etc.
Krishna says: Yes! Zero is our hero!
James says: Krishna, you now belong to the Way of Zero. Here we believe nothing is not nothing. Even if you have nothing, deep down you still got something and therefore you’re a Zero Hero 🙂
Harry says: If we’re actually in a matrix, then zeroes and ones were here long before anything else…. 🙂
Tim says: Zero is represented by a circle that symbolically means nothing, yet, because a circle has no beginning or end, it is eternal. Also, the planets in the sola system are round and are in permanent cycles of the sun and often each other… The circle, or zero, is profound me thinks… 🙂 I love this stuff…
Masi asks: Is infinity a variable? (I’m just asking random questions to make this go somewhere).
James says: This is the zero (nothing) thread, so why does nothing need to go somewhere, Masi?
Lisa says: With zero, the devil is in the details….hence Zero is not really a number, but the name given the very first eternal multiversal being….you can argue both for and against it and be right and wrong all at the same time… It is time to revise the First Law of Thermodynamics. Empty space is full of atoms and therefore DOES NOT consist of nothing.
Tim says: I think zero is an aspect of truth, thus its value is incalculable…
James says: Here’s a song about zero by the little known 1980s Scottish indie rock band TV21 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-htBdwn …
To view all comments, or better still to have YOUR say, go to: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18630809-is-zero-a-number?page=1
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The Underground Knowledge discussion group has been designed to encourage debates about important and underreported issues of our era. All you need is an enquiring mind, an interest in the world we live in and a desire to learn or share “underground knowledge”.
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