Zero is the place holder digit.

The Romans used the infamous Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, V, etc.

When the Romans had to calculate something like XXVII + CII =, heaven only knows how they did it without a zero and without positional notation. When you looked at that addition problem, I’ll bet the first thing you did was convert it to Arabic numerals.

The Arabs introduced the zero (following through on a number system developed on the Indian subcontinent), and thereby facilitated our consumerist, corporate military complex.

It could be argued that the scientific discoveries and advances made from the Renaissance onward would have been impossible without their gifts of the zero and the decimal system.

Zero rules mathematics and, of course, algebra!