How did “Zero” Give Rise to Everything?  While I am writing
this, I am now in Singapore with my son Ken. I have attended the
workshop on “Bright Dark Ages,” which is organized by the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies here. Their aim is to
rethink what is known as the “Grand Question” posed by the work
of British historian of science Joseph Needham. For those who
may not know him already, Needham is widely known for his
monumentally huge work on science and civilization in China. And
the Grand Question here is why it is the case that, given the
tremendous advances made by the Chinese civilization in matters
of science and technology for the past millennia, modern science
did not develop there.  Many of the participants debated and
analyzed this question from many angles, but I won’t focus on
this point here in this post. I would rather talk about one of
the papers presented in the workshop on the numeral ‘zero.’ As
is well known, zero originated in India around the Middle Ages.
However, the author, George G