Mesopotamia to Machine Learning

I've been meaning to post for quite some time about a subject that has become very central to me and my work. Maths has been a constant in my life since early childhood. Coming from a family where maths was highly valued it was natural for me to gravitate towards mathematics at university. Recently, I have been reading about the history of mathematics. I was surprised to discover that the first recorded zero appeared in Mesopotamia around 3 B.C. and that the first use of negative numbers appeared in China around 200 B.C.