Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Interesting stuff. Good short read--complex theoretical concept explained well enough to follow with out getting too heady. Kinda where philosophy, math, reality and the abstract all meet/ diverge. dug the relativity of having to accept the void.

Insightful to the extent of exploring the unknown. Entertaining the thought that we are insignificantly existential in daily life, we can only admire the fact that there is still so much dark unknown uncertainties and mysteriousness that we can not ponder or visualize. This book gives you a sense of the possibility of impossibilities. Great read if you enjoy the powerful cause and effect that numbers have on every aspect of our life.

This is an extremely interesting book. Reading should have you looking at numbers as well as life...differently.

Pretty consistently interesting and engaging, although there's a lot of hand-waving in the bits on string theory (perhaps unavoidable?). It was fun to revisit a lot of the stuff I learned in school.

This was a very interesting book. It was really neat reading about how zero developed from an idea into a commonplace number. Especially funny, to me anyway, were the stories about the Greeks rejecting it outright.

Not just a math book, not just a history book, but a fascinating exploration that most people never think about.

Super interesting, although the second half gets a little to calculus heavy for me to handle. Its pretty bizarre that the concept of zero was not accepted in western science/ mathematics until the 1600's. The cult of Aristotle and the Catholic Church did a pretty good job making sure no one did any heavy thinking. That's why our calendar is fucked. But basically, the concept of zero was anathema because it necessitated the recognition of the concepts of void and infinity which through religious dogma into question. A series of examples on how science doesn't work when you reach your conclusions before you test them.

Everyone should read this masterpiece. If you're not at all interested in math, there is plenty of history to be had too! Great for understanding the human beast a bit more.

Unlike any book I've ever read... amazing how he takes the reader from history to simple math to space and beyond. Just a flat out dynamite read that I can honestly recommend to anyone regardless of their mathematical senses. Just have an interest in learning and a slight interest in the sciences.

I had no idea that the number 0 had this kind of a history. And this story about "nothing" beats anything Seinfeld ever did!