Mainlander does not sound all too healthy, Benjamin. The Vikings, on the other hand, did not suffer at all and had trade routes to the Middle East, raids to various parts of Europe, and the first Europeans to discover the Americas. I guess life is what one makes it.
I am a structural philosopher, and in our conversation, I believe discussing the potential overall structure is where we need to continue.
There are three (probably even more) structures in which we can say something about the overall level.
First off, the system that contains just one number: 1.
Words like Universe, Everything, All, Whole are 1-word system examples. They include everything there is by their very nature. Not many words are found in this 1-word system, but some colorations exists as well. God is one of them, but then only if God is Almighty, meaning everything belongs to God, no exceptions. Other words are Mankind, Life, Nature that show us specific overall perspectives.
As said, there aren't too many words in this category.
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The decimal system also enables us to place Everything in first position with 1.
In this case, it is seen as the first and, considering this system, God would no longer be Almighty, but can be considered mightiest if so desired. Others exist next to God.
Number 1 in the decimal system is seen also with words like best, winner, leader, beginning, front, etcetera, indicating they are not whole but rather the specific part that indicates the rest is to follow.
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Lastly, the binary system.
It can be used to declare anything in our universe, and yet it provides us a very special perspective when considering number 1 because it does not behave like the 1 in the other two versions described earlier. There is no single 1 that is everything in the binary system. If we want to declare 'everything' in the binary system, we end up with something like 1100010111011001 and we then agree on this combination meaning 'everything'. From that moment on, that combination has then that meaning, until we change it.
The binary system has many 1s, and none is more special than the other. But the binary system also shows that 0s are vital in our understanding the whole of existence. The binary system cannot be written without the zeros and even show that there is a function associated with zero. A zero can occupy a spot, and no 1 will then sit there. The function is therefore something like 'preventing'.
As I have shown with my P-Q line, it is fairly easy for people to occupy the 0 with a 1 incorrectly. Ask me, and I will say that everyone does that from time to time (or all the time). Instead of seeing 0 for what it really is, people place a 1 on top of it and think there is nothing wrong.
Mainlander did exactly that when he committed suicide. Based on your story, I see him give value (1) to something that he subsequently declares as gone (0). That is bad thinking on his behalf. He forgot to incorporate structural thinking but accepted something as the truth that cannot be known as a truth, valued it, and subsequently ended up following the mistake he made in his brain. Very sad.
Final point I need to make: I have mathematical evidence that zero exists in all mathematical systems and that zero has a function indeed. If you accept that the binary system points this out pretty well already, then you don’t need that evidence. But I can provide the details that show that the decimal system starts out with 0, and that 0 is actually the first step for our material universe (meaning: separation occurred in the prior state, ending that prior state).
Energy does not get lost, so we need not ask where energy came from. But matter is new, and we can ask where matter came from, how it ended up coming into existence.
