Good, I am glad you see the dual nature of zero, JB.

When a farmer has five oranges and there are five kids asking to receive one, and the farmer says 'no', then the result is zero, and the result is at the same time 5 oranges, 5 kids, and 1 farmer. The only thing that zero points to is the transaction; it did not take place. Everything else is simply still there, nothing happened to change anything.

So 0/5 = 0.

Yet 5/0 = either 0 or 5.

The zero points to something else than what five points to. The five oranges are still there, and they are still in the possession of the farmer.

Then, there is also 0 within 5. This points to the five parts (oranges) not being one whole. The individual parts can be distinguished, and 0 is the mathematical function to express that distinction.

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Zero is fascinating. It is completely unimportant, and it is completely important.

The easy example I often use is the empty wallet. It represents 0 in finance for certain.

Yet ignoring the empty wallet is the last thing we want to or should do. Entire nations rise early in the morning just to make sure the wallet does not become empty.

Money is of course an unnatural reality that nevertheless was made valuable by people. Animals can snif money, but will not care for it. The sun does not rise because there is money on planet Earth. Money is an abstraction that nevertheless changes the world.

We chop down more than we need to chop down; we chase more money than we need; we divide the world into more segments than necessary, all because money is our God, the highest good in our lives. We are driven by money as if it were real. In reality, money is an abstraction and as such will contain and express a falsehood at times.

We have zero in top, and we put money in that position.