By Michael Varley
If you are new to Cryptography and Number Theory I recommend this version.
Layer Zero: How Bitcoin’s Hidden Number Pattern Could Power a New Kind of Computing
There is currently no universal method to verify that meaning is preserved from one computational step or communication to the next. In today’s computing, the same symbol, term, or output can be interpreted in conflicting ways depending on context, language, domain, software version, or hidden assumptions.
We propose Layer Zero: a foundational adjustment to computing in which a single arithmetic operation yields parallel truths — one numeric, one symbolic — both valid and mathematically verifiable.
A purely number‑to‑meaning form of computation would allow semantic state to be encoded, transmitted, and verified with the same mathematical certainty that cryptography brings to digital value.
The single‑output model of today’s Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) only preserves numeric truth. For example:
2 + 2 → 4
This collapses all possible interpretations into one scalar result, losing the symbolic information that could also be derived from the same inputs.