this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

As a programmer, I'm ashamed to admit that the correct answer is no. If zero was natural we wouldn't have needed 10s of thousands of years to invent it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Did we need to invent it, or did it just take that long to discover it? I mean “nothing” has always been around and there’s a lot we didn’t discover till much more recently that already existed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

IMO we invented it, because numbers don't real. But that's a deeper philosophical question.

[–] darthelmet 0 points 6 months ago

Does “nothing” “exist” independent of caring what there is nothing of or in what span of time and space there is nothing of the thing?

There’s always been “something” somewhere. Well, at least as far back as we can see.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

As a programmer, I'd ask you to link your selected version of definition of natural number along with your request because I can't give a fuck to guess

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I truly have no idea what you're saying.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I think he's just asking for a properly documented Pull Request in order to process your thoughts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I think you're considering whether zero is somehow "naturally-occurring", while others may be considering the concept of a natural number, which is a nonnegative integer.