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Re: Nothing is Everything
> Wanting to add something to the conversation I
> remarked that an Indian monk was responsible for
> presenting the concept of Zero to the world, and that
> without zero, our progress in technology would have
> progressed at a radically different pace.
Well, technically the Babylonians came up with a character
to represent Zero in their numerical position system as early
as the 4th century BC.
The earliest example of an Indian Zero is 458 AD but schol-
ars believe it must have been in use as early as 200 BC.
But the Babylonian Zero (which *wasn't* shaped like "0")
was more of a place-holder in their numeric system rather
than a true representation of "nothing."
The Mayan culture (500 - 925 AD) also had a similar
"place-holder" Zero character like the Babylonians, but,
yes, the Indian Zero was the first one which represented
a concept such as 6 - 6 = 0. In a sense, nothing.
Originally the Indian Zero was represented as just a dot
but it later changed to the familiar circle, or "0."
A great book dealing with the concept of nothing & its
history in culture & science (and the source of my above
information) is THE BOOK OF NOTHING: Vacuums,
Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the
Universe by John D. Barrow, copyright 2000, Pantheon
Books.
- SCHRADE in Akron