Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea [Paperback]

Charles Seife (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 1, 2000

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.

In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkers—from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to today's astrophysicists—who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The seemingly impossible Zen task--writing a book about nothing--has a loophole: people have been chatting, learning, and even fighting about nothing for millennia. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, by noted science writer Charles Seife, starts with the story of a modern battleship stopped dead in the water by a loose zero, then rewinds back to several hundred years BCE. Some empty-headed genius improved the traditional Eastern counting methods immeasurably by adding zero as a placeholder, which allowed the genesis of our still-used decimal system. It's all been uphill from there, but Seife is enthusiastic about his subject; his synthesis of math, history, and anthropology seduces the reader into a new fascination with the most troubling number.

Why did the Church reject the use of zero? How did mystics of all stripes get bent out of shape over it? Is it true that science as we know it depends on this mysterious round digit? Zero opens up these questions and lets us explore the answers and their ramifications for our oh-so-modern lives. Seife has fun with his format, too, starting with chapter 0 and finishing with an appendix titled "Make Your Own Wormhole Time Machine." (Warning: don't get your hopes up too much.) There are enough graphs and equations to scare off serious numerophobes, but the real story is in the interactions between artists, scientists, mathematicians, religious and political leaders, and the rest of us--it seems we really do have nothing in common. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In a lively and literate first book, science journalist Seife takes readers on a historical, mathematical and scientific journey from the infinitesimal to the infinite. With clever devices such as humorously titled and subtitled chapters numbered from zero to infinity, Seife keeps the tone as light as his subject matter is deep. By book's end, no reader will dispute Seife's claim that zero is among the most fertile--and therefore most dangerous--ideas that humanity has devised. Equally powerful and dangerous is its inseparable counterpart, infinity, for both it and zero invoke to many the divine power that created an infinite universe from the void. The power of zero lies in such a contradiction, and civilization has struggled with it, alternatively seeking to ban and to embrace zero and infinity. The clash has led to holy wars and persecutions, philosophical disputes and profound scientific discoveries. In addition to offering fascinating historical perspectives, Seife's prose provides readers who struggled through math and science courses a clear window for seeing both the powerful techniques of calculus and the conundrums of modern physics: general relativity, quantum mechanics and their marriage in string theory. In doing so, Seife, this entertaining and enlightening book reveals one of the roots of humanity's deepest uncertainties and greatest insights. BOMC selection. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Paperback Book Club edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140296476
• ISBN-13: 978-0140296471
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (181 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Seife is a correspondent for Science, a London--based international weekly science magazine. He has written for Scientific American, The Economist, Wired UK, The Sciences, and numerous other publications. He has a masters degree in mathematics from Yale.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

172 of 189 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, but I prefer another on the subject of zero June 16, 2000

By Alleyne

Format:Hardcover

I've recently read both Charles Seife's "Zero:The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" and Robert Kaplan's "The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero." They are at the same time very similar and very different. They each follow an almost identical line, presenting the evolution of zero chronologically, and they each make almost identical stops along the way. The difference is in how they treat the steps in zero's evolution which is conditioned by their differing metaphysical views. An illuminating example is how they each treat Aristotle's role in zero's history.

Charles Seife, from the beginning, reifies zero: the author accepts the misconception that zero is some sort of actually existing mystical force resting at the center of black holes. He doesn't step back to take a look at the concept as concept. Nor does he appear to keep in mind that mathematics is the science of measurement, or that time is not a force or dimension, but merely a measurement of motion. This distorts his perspective, from which he attempts to refute Aristotle's refutation of the existence of the void: for Seife, zero exists and is a force in and of itself. In Seife's hands, zero certainly is a dangerous idea!

Robert Kaplan, on the other hand, delves deeper. His work is informed by an obvious love for history and classic literature, and while this results in many obscure literary asides, one feels that this book takes part in the Great Conversation. As a result he steps back and takes a critical look at the true meaning and usefulness of the concept as a concept. Is zero a number? Is it noun, adjective, or verb? Does it actually exist outside of conceptual consciousness or is it exclusively a tool of the mind?...

Both authors follow zero's role in the development of algebra and the calculus. As a math "infant", this reader, having read Seife's book first, found that the explanations of these two developments by Kaplan cleared away the haze, which Seife's book was unable to do. I found both books to be illuminating. Seife's book contains much valuable historical information. He did his homework. If one were to read only this book on the subject, one would have learned a great deal about the history of mathematics. But if I were to have to choose one to recommend, it would be Kaplan's book. It is more informed, more seasoned, more honestly inductive in its approach. Read more ›

131 of 148 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It would have been better without the hyperbole May 13, 2005

By Duwayne Anderson

Format:Paperback

This book is about the history of zero, from ancient times to modern concepts. It's quite interesting and encompasses a lot of mathematics and philosophy as well as a bit of physics.

Although the book reads well, is nicely documented, and extensively researched, the author has a style that I found aggravating; his frequent use of poetic hyperbole. This limits the book's value for someone unfamiliar with basic concepts in mathematics and physics.

I'm not sure why Seife choose this style. There seems to be a movement (hopefully short lived) among science writers to dress up science and mathematics in poetic, flowery language. Whatever the reason, science has good reason to use strict meanings for words and a disciplined approach to scientific concepts. When authors poetically use words in technically incorrect ways they can make the prose pretty, but they often create confusion.

For example, Saif says "Zero and infinity are eternally locked in a struggle to engulf all the numbers. Like a Manichaean nightmare, the two sit on opposite poles of the number sphere, sucking numbers in like tiny black holes." [p. 145]

From a mathematical point of view this is pure gibberish. If one's intent is to educate others about mathematics, such poetic hyperbole is not only useless, but counter productive as well. For folks who don't already know a bit about mathematics, Seife's book is as likely to confuse as to educate. For those who already understand the concepts, the poetry might be pleasing, but from an educational point of view the hyperbole found throughout this book is a definite stumbling block.

Another problem I had with this book is the way Seife misstates some key aspects in modern science.... For example, on page 171 he asserts the classical definition of a vacuum: "The vacuum, by definition, has nothing in it - no particles, no light, nothing." He then describes the quantum mechanical view of the vacuum, and the zero-point energy. Part of this explanation includes a nice description of the Casimir effect [p. 172], which is a measurement of the literal existence of the "virtual" particles predicted by Quantum Mechanics. What these experiments show is that these "virtual" particles actually exist, and can be detected by the force they exert on closely spaced metal plates. This is actually a beautiful example of how science changed our concept of the vacuum. Classically, we thought of the vacuum as having "nothing in it," but Quantum Mechanics tells us that the classical vacuum cannot exist. But even after his nice explanation of the Casimir effect, Seife goes and spoils it with this absurd statement:

"Casimir realized that he had felt the force of nothing." [p. 172] "This is the force of the vacuum, a force produced by nothing at all. This is the Casimir effect."

It's as if someone asserted that the space around us has "nothing in it," and then rejoices when the wind touches his face, and runs off spouting "I've felt the force of nothing." What the Casimir effect teaches us is that what we thought was "nothing at all" really is something, and that calling them "virtual" particles is just as silly as early mathematicians who called the square root of negative numbers "imaginary."

There are other mistakes as well. For example, on page 178 he says: "The speed of light is the ultimate speed limit; you cannot reach it, much less exceed it. Nature has defended itself from an unruly zero."

But this simply isn't true. Even a casual reader knows that the statement "you cannot reach it" is wrong. After all, photons travel at the speed of light all the time. Furthermore, scientists have known for years that, given the right materials, both the phase velocity and the group velocity of light can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum [Optics and Photonics News, June 2002]. All this is consistent within the framework of relativity, but Seife's hyperbole is likely to mislead the novice. Indeed, recent experiments showing these phenomena have resulted in all sorts of pundits on the Internet claiming that relativity had been falsified.

By getting all wound up with poetic hyperbole about nature "[defending] itself from an unruly zero" the author has, I fear, unwittingly contributed to the confusion of non-scientists about the science of relativity.

I don't mean to give the impression that this is a bad book. I actually found most of it readable and pleasant. I enjoyed the historical aspects and appreciated how the author illustrates the influence of philosophy, and especially religion, in either advancing or retarding cultural acceptance of the concept of zero. I thought he did a particularly nice job of explaining the development of the calculus, and how the concept of zero played its part. As usual, the primary distractions were related to his use of poetic hyperbole, as well as careless analogies. For example, on page 126 he writes:

"... using calculus was as much an act of faith as declaring a belief in god."

This absurd statement was almost certainly made without thinking. After all, even though early mathematicians could not explain why the calculus worked - at least not with rigorous logic - they could demonstrate that it *did* work. Furthermore, anyone could use it. A person didn't have to believe in calculus or work themselves into an emotional frenzy to calculate the volume of a sphere. The same cannot, of course, be said of god.

This could have been a really great book. The subject matter and story of zero are fascinating. Unfortunately, Seife uses too many analogies that are either poor, extreme, or misleading. And his persistent tendency toward exaggeration was a real distraction for me. For these reasons I'd not recommend the book to someone not already somewhat knowledgeable about mathematics and physics - I think it would be too confusing. For those who can read between the lines of poetic hyperbole, though, I think the book is worthwhile. Read more ›

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Seriously flawed December 22, 2001

By Pat

Format:Paperback

Quite a few books recently have chosen the history of zero and the vacuum as their subject, and Seife's book is the clunker of the group. He has the dubious honor of bringing a tabloid style to math writing; his pages are replete with hyberbole and lame puns, as well as sometimes potty-mouthed in-jokes about mathematicians and various historical personages (Martin Luther in particular) that simply do not belong here.

This might be a pardonable sin, but Seife combines this problem with two others that are less forgivable-- frequent errors and outright arrogance. I could go on at length, but a review in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society captures the problems best. (...)

As Gray points out in the review, Seife says contradictory things about the Mayan calendar, in one place claiming that it is more consistent than the Gregorian (by including a zero year in the calendar) but then showing how the mixing of 3 different calendars led to confusion about the days. At one point the book also notes how zero was an ancient concept beginning thousands of years before the first civilization, but later suggests it started just a few centuries before Christ in the Fertile Crescent. Seife's book is full of these maddening little errors, which together suggest that he was not thorough in his research and proofreading.

Seife's discussion of the history of calculus is woeful, as Gray further notes. Seife conflates the history of Newtonian calculus with its representation in differential equation form, and exaggerates the importance of the indeterminate expression-- 0/0-- and its confrontation via L'Hopital's rule, in establishing the foundation of the calculus....

The last third of the book, which moves into cosmology and physics, is simply awful; Seife has no idea what he's talking about, and his discussions are based either on totally outdated information or misconceptions of one kind or another. He states that "a black hole is a point." This is totally wrong! Even the singularity-- which had for a while been considered something like a point-- is probably not a point, as work in the past decade on quantum gravity has shown; and in any case, the black hole itself is a collapsed object and is not modeled as a point. Most disappointingly of all, Seife almost completely skips over the total alteration of the physical vacuum based on quantum physics-- this is precisely why "zero" and the "vacuum" are so interesting these days, *because* the vacuum is known to be such a vibrant place, but Seife's book totally misses this. As Gray goes on to point out, the fundamental flaw with Seife's sloppy book is that it wants less "to instruct" the reader than to get the reader "to marvel," so the book is high on flash and poor on substance.

I'd strongly encourage anyone to read Gray's review, as it goes into much more depth that can be provided here. The only "dangerous idea" of Seife's book is the possibility that it might wind up recommended in school classrooms, leading students and teachers down the path of misinformation. Read more ›