The Zero Hypothesis

Have you ever noticed the bizarre curve in the progress of technology in human history? A lifetime is really too short to notice but technical progress since the beginning of civilization has been somewhat like a turtle morphing into a very fast rabbit for the last 1/15 or so of a race. If we consider civilization as having begun about 7,000 years ago, almost all of our technical progress, relatively speaking, since then has been in the last 350 years.

There has been intermittent progress throughout civilization such as the development of writing, alphabets, geometry, cement and, flying buttresses. However, none of these steps had much effect on the daily life of the average person. In contrast, the last three and a half centuries have been incredibly different. The Industrial Revolution led to the Nineteenth Century revolution in chemistry, which led to the Twentieth Century revolution in physics.

Before this, humans were adept at agriculture, building, medicine, navigation, mining, measurement, writing, calendars and, time-keeping. The one thing that was missing was machines. Anything that human beings made before 350 years ago that could be described as a machine was very rudimentary. When the Industrial Revolution came, it was based on machines and affected all other areas of progress.

But why did human history unfold like this? I believe that the Reformation opened the psychological door to the Industrial Revolution but did not provide the vehicle. The newly-invented printing press spread the Industrial Revolution and promoted mass-education but I do not believe that it was the cause of it. National rivalry spurred competition but I do not believe that it caused the Industrial Revolution either.

My conclusion is that it was simple arithmetic that turned out to be revolutionary. Geometry, which is vital to the construction of complex buildings, was quite advanced in ancient times. In fact, it was much more advanced that arithmetic. It struck me one day that there are no complex calculations discussed or mentioned in the Bible. The most complex calculation seems to be 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. In contrast, the construction of the temple is told in geometric detail and plumbs and surveying is also discussed in the Bible.

The Industrial Revolution actually began with a gradual numbers revolution and when that became embedded in our thinking, the machines naturally followed. People could count since prehistoric times either with their fingers or piles of stones. A variety of abaci (the plural of abacus is abaci) and counting boards have been in use for thousands of years.

What I have concluded that changed the course of history is the concept of zero. When the importance of zero is fully grasped, very complex calculations can be done on paper. Without using zero, we are limited to the relatively simple calculations that can be done with abaci and counting boards. It is not necessary to understand the importance of zero in order to use these simple devices but it is to do complex calculations on paper.

Geometry became advanced long before arithmetic because it did not require understanding of the importance of zero. The building of elaborate structures requires geometry but only relatively simple arithmetical calculations because buildings do not have moving parts. The planning of machines, in contrast, require complex calculations with numbers and this could not be done in ancient times.

Have you ever noticed the similarity between an addition or multiplication problem and the operation of machines involving wheels or pistons? Not only did the ability to do complex calculations make the development of machines possible, those early machines even resemble the operation of an arithmetic problem as the operation moves from one column to the next. The Arabs seem to have introduced the idea of zero to Europe and I believe that merchants brought it to them from India.