I suspect most HN readers probably live in a world of binary logic where things are either "true" or "false", but I come from data-land, where ternary logic is the norm, and where "zero" is a very different concept than "null".
"Zero" is something that can be compared to other numbers, mathematical operations can be performed on it, etc., but "nothing" is just that... nothing.
I'm sure the ancient Greeks used one term to refer to both concepts, and that's exactly what people are pointing out when they refer to other cultures "inventing" the concept of zero. These cultures correctly realized that these are two distinct concepts, and so they created a new, separate term for zero.
I suspect most HN readers probably live in a world of binary logic where things are either "true" or "false", but I come from data-land, where ternary logic is the norm, and where "zero" is a very different concept than "null".
"Zero" is something that can be compared to other numbers, mathematical operations can be performed on it, etc., but "nothing" is just that... nothing.
I'm sure the ancient Greeks used one term to refer to both concepts, and that's exactly what people are pointing out when they refer to other cultures "inventing" the concept of zero. These cultures correctly realized that these are two distinct concepts, and so they created a new, separate term for zero.