The Power of zero

SENTHIL VISWANATHAN explores the concept of zero, from both computing and spiritual perspectives.

- SENTHIL VISWANATHAN

Through this, he uncovers the very origins and base of our existence as human beings, and also why this hidden part of ourselves is eclipsed by whatever manifests from it. He highlights the importance of the attitudes of insignificance and humility in our personalities if we are to glimpse the nothingness at the Center of our being.

In the world of computers, the basic representation of information uses the binary system. In the binary system, there are just two states of information—presence (one) or absence (zero) of a bit of information.

Any number can be represented by a combination of these data of ones and zeroes. The operations permitted on this binary system of data—addition, multiplication, division, negation etc.—permit both the representations of complex data as well as computation, thereby enabling it to become both the storehouse of information and the logic that transforms and uses it.

This Zero or Nothingness is contained in every number (zero added to any number is the same number). Similarly in a graph, the center of the graph is denoted by the coordinates 0, 0. Every other coordinate is anchored in reference to this center, and is contained within it.