Over break, i finished a book called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. In it, the author documents the changes in human thought as man struggles to understand the significance of such a seemingly simple number as zero. The book begins before ancient civilizations ever created a symbol for the number zero and ends up showing how zero is responsible for the popularity of string theory as a means of describing the universe. Along the way, we meet many philosophers, mathematicians, and physists. Though there is some math mixed in, one of the main themes is the reluctance of the majority to accept radical new ideas even when those ideas turn out to be the truth. The number zero is used as a metaphor to represent both nothingness and the infinite. It's interesting to see how these two concepts shape our understanding of the cosmos. I never would have guessed the biography of a number could be so interesting. I wonder if the life of three is interesting enough to deserve one.
Posted by Matthew at January 3, 2006 10:08 PM