Zero: The Shape of Nothing

It is incomprehensible for the Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5 to understand what came before the Big Bang. There are those that have created their own theories to explain the creation of their world, but none of them have proven to be correct, albeit some have ventured closer than others.

As we know in Mirare, the onset of a Simulation signals a successful input of presets to launch the new program. But, as is true with every Simulation, the Subs create stories to give meaning to how their World came to be. The Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5 currently believe a number of possibilities; these range from delusional mutterings to some rather impressive theories (considering their well-documented cognitive limitations). However, the leading assumption in this Simulation suggests a state of entropy which resulted in what they call the Big Bang¹. The Big Bang is presumed to have been an explosion that resulted in pure energy and as the universe expanded, antimatter and matter were both produced rapidly and equally. This reaction in turn presented the genesis of atoms and particles with which their World could be created. Although the scientists of SIM-3625-MeO.5 are not entirely wrong in that atoms and particles were the birth of their World, it was, of course, a scheduled procedure — and not a miracle, precedent, or any other such absurd narrative.

The sudden appearance of their World as a result of a Big Bang, is a revealing glimpse into the rational Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5 have used to defend the concept for Zero. For them, the endearing idea that the World began from nothing to create everything, is exactly Zeros architecture.

A few days into the SIM-3625-MeO.5 launch, researchers observed a very clever little fellow named Hipparchus. According to the Subs recording, this astronomer² was theorizing mathematical processes to understand the Earth’s³ position in the sky⁴ (a thankless and utterly pointless expedition). In his study, Hipparchus developed an off shoot of the existing numerical system. For this new Sexagesimal System⁵, the astronomer introduced a symbol for Zero. The symbol was not created to have some philosophical meaning⁶, but instead was to provide mathematicians with a symbol to use as a placeholder in mathematical formulations.

Another astronomer of the time Ptolemy, inspired by the work of academics like Hipparchus, developed his own work called the Almagest, where the Hellenistic Zero was first introduced. This new interpretation of zero maintained its function as a symbol, but also as an official number. And with the introduction of the Hellenistic Zero, we can see the concept and use of Zero spreading across the geographical map.

Not long after observing Hipparchus and Ptolemy, SIM-3625-MeO.5 Researchers found a rich pupil for study in Ibn al-Haytham, a categorically impressive example of the Sub population in terms of his study on subjects ranging from visual perception, physics, mathematics, psychology, and astronomy. In his work, he presented the first of spatial arguments for the creation of Zero. Through geometry, Ibn al-Haytham sought to defend his theory on ‘al-makan’, the collection of a three-dimensional void that defines the frame of a containing body. The argument suggested that a Void was in fact more than nothingness, but actually a container for nothingness. Despite its simplicity, this theory offers a glimpse into the impact of Zero on SIM-3625-MeO.5.

For SIM-3625-MeO.5, Infinity has been represented in three ways: mathematical, physical, and metaphysical. Infinity is not only representative of a seemingly bottomless unknown but has also come to symbolize an endless manifestation of everything. The manifestations of Infinity are demonstrated through the Simulation’s patterns of life as depicted through everything from natural to mathematical forms.

As scholars, scientists, and mathematicians played with the idea of Infinity, a mathematician named John Wallis created a common symbol to represent the concept, as we have learned is customary of Sub Culture. Wallis sought to determine the quadrature of a circle and developed symbols and formulas to represent indivisibles. Through this completely incomprehensibly boring study, the mathematician found a need for a symbol to represent a series of squares of indivisibles⁷.

However, despite the mostly absurd gerbil holes of pseudo-intellectualism the Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5 explore, they can occasionally, although very rarely, surprise Simulation observers and researchers. One such example is the discovery of a glitch in the Simulation presets for SIM-3625-MeO.5.

Robert W. Brooks and Peter Matelski, a pair of mathematicians in the field of complex dynamics, discovered a wormhole to Mirare. As Simulation researchers watched on in horror, the potentially catastrophic discovery was determined by the Subs to be a visualization of Infinity. When another mathematician, Benoit Mandelbrot, also began fiddling with the glitch, it was again a perfect capitulation of the priorities for Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5. In this case Mandelbrot would only come to give the glitch a name: his own. The Mandelbrot Set, the name given to the undiscovered wormhole, has become a fractal motif largely used to demonstrate the conversion from simple mathematical rules yielding complex results. Outside of mathematics, fractal aesthetics and visualizations of such have been used to mimic the audiovisual hallucinations Subs experience when they engage the Standby Setting⁸. But yet again, the Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5 have demonstrated a limited awareness of their position in the Simulation. What this Simulation calls the Mandelbrot Set is in fact the source of their single most studied question: “Why are we here?” For the purposes of this article however, the seemingly infinite patterns experienced through the Mandelbrot Set algorithm, are in fact an excellent example of the dichotomy of Zero, as it is a representation of everything (the study of Simulations and reason for Sub existence) and nothing (the discovery of the Simulation also represents the Sub’s immediate emancipation from purpose).

To continue the study of Zero in SIM-3625-MeO.5, we will now examine the most conceptual and symbolic iteration of the Zero concept: birth and death⁹. Through the concept of birth and death, we can see how a Sub’s constant need for symbolism can lead to metaphysical studies like a game they call Tarot. The Tarot is an ancient deck of cards used to support Subs in their search for meaning. They look to the Tarot for symbolism to provide themselves with any inclination of a direction for their own lives. But again, we see even in this cryptic ploy to assign some significance to their journeys, the Zero appears as the ouroboros on the card called The Fool and The World. These two cards represent the Alpha and Omega of a deck and signify a perpetual cycle of beginning and end, and as we can see with their names, are almost daring Subs to admit defeat and accept that finding meaning for their World is a Fools game.

For researchers studying SIM-3625-MeO.5, there have been claims that in the Subs symbolism and magical thinking, one can almost observe the Subs recognition that their lives are pointless and manufactured. By constantly obsessing over the question of how something is born from nothing (as is the case with their World), we can see how they appear to understand a reality where their existence has been programmed. As a startiling discovery revealed, some Subs even grapple with ideation of Multiverses and Parallel Universes. In these instances, we witness how the Subs stand on the border of accepting their place in the Simulation. But, instead, for a majority of Subs in SIM-3625-MeO.5, they look to symbolism in cards and books to excuse their insignificance with the more theatrical positing of magic.

One of the attempts made by Subs to scientifically create an Infinite Cycle, was demonstrated by the aim to create Absolute Zero: the coldest temperature where matter can liquify. However, a fatal flaw exists in the experiment to reach -273.25 degrees Celsius (the temperature of Absolute Zero), the energy to create that cold of a temperature requires too much energy. The process of attempting to reach Absolute Zero ultimately produces heat, which defies the desired state for low entropy due to unstoppable motion in atoms and molecules.

Here we reach what feels to be the ultimate cyclical argument for the Subs of SIM-3625-MeO.5. How can the beginning be truly defined when it can’t be recreated? Much like the theories of multiverses and parallel universes – these suggestions consider that whether the Subs reality is a product of the true beginning, or the origin of it, the mathematics of their world suggest that the pattern has most certainly been predetermined.

With the birth of Zero in numerical systems, the Zero no longer represented absence; and with the absence of absence, so came the birth of Currency¹⁰. Much like Zero being given a form, Currency came to represent physical manifestations of Value, allowing the concepts of both wealth and destitution to flourish.

In the early stages of Currency, objects like coins and shells were used to create a standardized measure of value. Through standards, Subs developed complex systems of trade where they would assign value to tangible goods like tools and food. Goods could be purchased with the early manifestations of placeholder funds. Eventually, the interconnection of geographical societies led to even more sophisticated financial systems, where eventually, the goods no longer needed to be tangible. As researchers observe SIM-3625-MeO.5 today, we can see how the Subs are assigning value to, and ownership over, creative thought and ideas — even going so far as to create the term, Intellectual Property.

In a very strange development, the Subs have even gone so far as to further distort the concept of Currency and Value by developing Cryptocurrency¹¹.