This paper argues against the standard mathematical and linguistic treatment of zero, nullity, absence, empty collections, default falsity, and related symbolic devices. The critique is not merely that the glyph 0 is historically convenient, pedagogically overused, or technically dangerous in certain operations. The deeper criticism is that the entire zero-family performs a forbidden linguistic act: it converts non-presentation into a present sign, then grants that sign the operational status of a value, object, state, field, return token, placeholder, origin, identity element, or institutional fact. The argument begins from common sense: counting is not primitive. Counting requires prior acts of presentation, classification, individuation, boundary-setting, equivalence, and roster formation. A count is exact only relative to these prior acts. Therefore, when mathematics says that counting proceeds "by definition," the definition has not proven the world to be so divided; it has merely installed a formal regime after the carving has already occurred. Even one is already an act of unification. Zero is more severe: it transforms non-count into count, non-collection into collection, non-value into value, non-record into record, and non-presentation into object-language presence. The paper then develops a strict anti-zero position. It rejects not only the digit 0 but also its surrogates: "absence," "null," "none," "empty," "missing," "not found," blank-as-data, false-by-default, the empty set, the empty list, the zero vector, zero balance, zero emissions, no-evidence claims, and vacuous truth. Merely replacing 0 with the word "absence" fails, because the same operation is being performed under a different costume. True anti-zeroism requires a presence-only grammar: if a positive witness presents, an inscription may form; if a witness does not present, the object language does not form a substitute term for that non-formation. The constructive portion of the paper introduces Transcendental Presence Notation (TPN), a formal notational discipline in which every expression must be sponsored by positive witnesses, traces, relations, transformations, rosters, pairings, or certificates. TPN contains no zero, no empty collection, no null return, no false object, no default negative, no object-language absence predicate, no vacuous truth, and no horizon treated as a countable item. Counts arise only from non-empty rosters. Equality is witnessed by positive pairing, not by zero difference. Settlement is witnessed by positive matching, not by zero balance. Equilibrium is represented as a balance trace, not as nothing. Queries emit hits when hits are presented, but they do not emit a "not found" token. This revised edition strengthens the formal grammar, answers three further objections—concerning positional notation, option types, and the apparent self-reference of the prohibition itself—and situates the proposal against its nearest conceptual neighbors. The result is not merely a replacement notation but a transcendental discipline of legitimate inscription.
Parker Emmerson (Wed,) studied this question.