Finding Zero

The invention of numbers is perhaps the greatest achievement of the human mind-- virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, quantified. However, the origins of these numbers has until now been unknown. Amir Aczel crisscrosses the world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross-examining self-proclaimed experts with wildly differing theories, to discover where the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals come from. It is this search that leads him to explore uncharted territory, to go on a grand quest into India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and ultimately into the wilds of Cambodia. There he is blown away to find the earliest zero-- the keystone of our entire system of numbers-- on a crumbling, vine-covered wall of a seventh-century temple adorned with eaten-away erotic sculptures. While on this odyssey, Aczel meets a host of fascinating characters: academics in search of truth, jungle trekkers looking for adventure, surprisingly honest politicians, shameless smugglers, and treacherous archaeological thieves-- who finally reveal where our numbers come from. Aczel takes the reader on a fascinating ride-- Front book jacket flap.