THE MAGNITUDE OF ZERO
The number zero is a quaint unassuming piece of our numerical lexicon. But it wasn’t always this way.
There was a time when the number zero first made it’s way into the minds of men, like a virus that forever altered our civilizational DNA. Once inserted, the zero virus would never leave, and would become the basis for a whole new understanding and conceptualization for all of mathematics, and a framework that founded all of modern technology.
Prior to the number zeros’ existence, there was a time when the number zero was not even a concept within our minds, when we had not yet invented or discovered this now seemingly inconsequential component of our everyday lives. It would not be unreasonable to go so far as to say that there was human civilization before zero, and after it. The number zero idea is that important to our modern world.
In 2020 with The Number Zero and Bitcoin Robert Breedlove reminded us of the critical infrastructure that the number zero truly is, how it was a cornerstone piece of our history that has shaped and driven civilization forward. But the master stroke of Robert’s article was how he analogized zero with Bitcoin, explaining how Bitcoin is the second coming of zero, how it is in the process of rearchitecting our current archaic monetary infrastructure, how it too will drive civilization forward as a key new cornerstone to the story of humanity.
Once again we are at a point in time where we can mark a clear delineation, before Bitcoin, and after it. Bitcoin is this important to the future of civilization.
The article written by Robert has largely went under the radar for many. Fortunately Cedric Youngelman, host of The Bitcoin Matrix podcast, recently had Robert on his show in an episode titled Robert Breedlove - The Number Zero and Bitcoin which resurrects the 2020 article, bringing light to the masterpiece that Robert had written.
Robert and Cedric discuss the profound analogy woven together within the article, that zero was the new beginning of a complete understanding for the full utilization and expression of the tool that we now know as modern mathematics, and how Bitcoin is similarly the new beginning of a complete understanding for the full utilization and expression of the tool that we are only just beginning to grasp, that of money.
What follows is a cliff notes of sorts on Robert’s article with some of the most salient excerpts, along with our colored commentary. Although the following highlights some interesting points, please take the time to read the original article full of incredible information, and listen to his discussion with Cedric. Understanding the magnitude of zero and how it is a fitting analogy for Bitcoin will surely bring you one step further down the proverbial rabbit hole and cement your convictions for the extraordinary new technology that is indeed ushering in a bright orange future for all of us, regardless of whether we like it or not.
In the history of culture the discovery of zero will always stand out as one of the greatest single achievements of the human race.
— Tobias Danzig, Number: The Language of Science
THE EFFICIENCY OF ZERO
[The Hindu-Arabic numeral system] allowed an immense economy of notation so that the same digit, for example 4, can be used to convey itself or forty (40) when followed by a zero, or four hundred and four when written as 404, or four thousand when written as a 4 followed by three zeros (4,000). The power of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system is incomparable as it allows us to represent numbers efficiently and compactly, enabling us to perform complicated arithmetic calculations that could not have been easily done before.
— Amir D. Aczel, Finding Zero
As Robert explains from his article:
Roman numeral inefficiency would not be tolerated for long in a world enriching itself through commerce. With trade networks proliferating and productivity escalating in tandem, growing prospects of wealth creation incentivized merchants to become increasingly competitive, pushing them to always search for an edge over others. Computation and record-keeping with a zero-based numeral system was qualitatively easier, quantitatively faster, and less prone to error. Despite Europe’s resistance, this new numeral system simply could not be ignored: like its distant progeny Bitcoin would later be, zero was an unstoppable idea whose time had come.
In a world where margins are fiercely fought over for profitability, the demand for the most reliable and most efficient economic calculator will always win out. He who wields the most efficient economic measuring stick, the bitcoin value measuring stick, will defeat all of his competition. Just as zero’s efficiency annihilated the Roman Numeral accounting system, Bitcoin’s efficiencies will annihilate the Fiat monetary system. It is inevitable, for the universe has become exceedingly efficient at grinding out the less efficient.
THE FUNCTIONS OF ZERO
The numeral zero offered us:
a medium to exchange from positive to negative,
a medium to store value by simply adding more zeros as values grow
a medium to measure most accurately as well as most efficiently through a standard notation and through the notion of values to and from nothing, to and from and with zero.
Before zero there was no conceptualization of arriving at less than nothing. The medium of zero gave us the mental framework to think through from positive to negative values as we pass through the bounds of nothing, of zero. This mental exercise for us now is elementary, but thousands of years ago this was all but impossible for the brightest minds of the world.
Robert explains in his article:
Zero’s third function is as a facilitator for fractions or ratios. For instance, the ancient Egyptians, whose numeral system lacked a zero, had an extremely cumbersome way of handling fractions: instead of thinking of 3/4 as a ratio of three to four (as we do today), they saw it as the sum of 1/2 and 1/4. The vast majority of Egyptian fractions were written as a sum of numbers as 1/n, where n is the counting number—these were called unit fractions. Without zero, long chains of unit fractions were necessary to handle larger and more complicated ratios (many of us remember the pain of converting fractions from our school days). With zero, we can easily convert fractions to decimal form (like 1/2 to 0.5), which obsoletes the need for complicated conversions when dealing with fractions. This is the “unit of account” function of zero. Prices expressed in money are just exchange ratios converted into a money-denominated price decimal: instead of saying “this house costs eleven cars” we say, “this house costs $440,000,” which is equal to the price of eleven $40,000 cars. Money gives us the ability to better handle exchange ratios in the same way zero gives us the ability to better handle numeric ratios.
THE POWER OF ZERO
As we begin to see the power of bitcoin chip away at the once almighty dollar, and the institutions that once seemed untouchable, the central banks and the governments that enforce them, we can see a strong parallel in the history of zero.
Robert elaborates:
Zero posed a major threat to the conception of a finite universe. Dividing by zero is devastating to the framework of logic, and thus threatened the perfect order and integrity of a Pythagorean worldview. This was a serious problem for The Church which, after the fall of the Roman Empire, appeared as the dominant institution in Europe. To substantiate its dominion in the world, The Church proffered itself as the gatekeeper to heaven. Anyone who crossed The Church in any way could find themselves eternally barred from the holy gates. The Church’s claim to absolute sovereignty was critically dependent on the Pythagorean model, as the dominant institution over Earth—which was in their view the center of the universe—necessarily held dominion in God’s universe. Standing as a symbol for both the void and the infinite, zero was heretical to The Church. Centuries later, a similar dynamic would unfold in the discovery of absolute scarcity for money, which is dissident to the dominion of The Fed—the false church of modernity.
When institutions fail to recognize the error in their ways, it becomes their undoing. Superior tech always wins, in the end.
More from Robert:
Ancient Greeks clung tightly to a worldview that did not tolerate zero or the infinite: rejection of these crucial concepts proved to be their biggest failure, as it prevented the discovery of calculus—the mathematical machinery on which much of the physical sciences and, thus, the modern world are constructed. Core to their (flawed) belief system was the concept of the “indivisible atom,” the elementary particle which could not be subdivided ad infinitum. In their minds, there was no way beyond the micro barrier of the atomic surface. In the same vein, they considered the universe a “macrocosmic atom” that was strictly bound by an outermost sphere of stars winking down towards the cosmic core—Earth. As above, so below: with nothing conceived to be above this stellar sphere and nothing below the atomic surface, there was no infinity and no void.
…
An infinite universe meant there were, at least, a vast multitude of planets, many of which likely had their own populations and churches. Earth was no longer the center of the universe, so why should The Church have universal dominion? In a grand ideological shift that foreshadowed the invention of Bitcoin centuries later, zero became the idea that broke The Church’s grip on humanity, just as absolute scarcity of money is breaking The Fed’s stranglehold on the world today. In an echo of history, us moderns can once again hear the discovery of nothing beginning to change everything.
Zero was the smooth stone slung into the face of Goliath, a death-stroke to the dominion of The Church; felled by an unstoppable idea, this oppressive institution’s fall from grace would make way for the rise of the nation-state—the dominant institutional model in modernity.
THE INEVITABILITY OF ZERO
Just because “The Church” would inevitably collapse under the weight of its hubris, does not mean that many of the teaching of The Church were not without merit, as they would prove their worth in the light of zero. In fact, in the light of zero, those teachings would shine brighter than ever as deep wisdom and Truth and go on to help shape the modern world.
Indoctrinated in The Church’s dogma, Christianity initially refused to accept zero, as it was linked to a primal fear of the void. Zero’s inexorable connection to nothingness and chaos made it a fearsome concept in the eyes of most Christians at the time. But zero’s capacity to support honest weights and measures, a core Biblical concept, would prove more important than the countermeasures of The Church (and the invention of zero would later lead to the invention of the most infallible of weights and measures, the most honest money in history—Bitcoin).
…
In the 13th century, academics like the renowned Italian mathematician Fibonacci began championing zero in their work, helping the Hindu-Arabic system gain credibility in Europe. As trade began to flourish and generate unprecedented levels of wealth in the world.
…
Eventually, zero became the cornerstone of calculus: an innovative system of mathematics that enabled people to contend with ever-smaller units approaching zero, but cunningly avoided the logic-trap of having to divide by zero. This new system gave mankind myriad new ways to comprehend and grasp his surroundings. Diverse disciplines such as chemistry, engineering, and physics all depend on calculus to fulfill their functions in the world today
…
In modernity, zero has become a celebrated tool in our mathematical arsenal. As the binary numerical system now forms the foundation of modern computer programming, zero was essential to the development of digital tools like the personal computer, the internet, and Bitcoin. Amazingly, all modern miracles made possible by digital technologies can be traced back to the invention of a figure for numeric nothingness by an ancient Indian mathematician: Brahmagupta gave the world a real “something for nothing,” a generosity Satoshi would emulate several centuries later.
Just as much of the world had no grasp of what zero was when it was released into the world as the missing piece of the numeral system, much of the world today has no grasp of what bitcoin is as the missing piece of the monetary system. But in time, as more people begin to benefit from bitcoin, just as we did with zero, more of our future will be built on the backbone of this now complete monetary system, just as we did with our numeral system. And just as the attacks by The Church eventually faded in time and succumbed to the weight of zero, in our time now The State will eventually succumb to the weight of bitcoin, the quaint unassuming magical internet money, that seemingly came from nothing.
Cheers!