// define.nilis.dev

nil is not the absence of value.
It is the value of absence. 

type Nil struct{}

// Nil carries no fields, yet it satisfies every interface.
// What do you call something that is nothing
// but can become anything?
nil — the zero value; the uninitialized; the promise of something not yet
null — deliberate vacancy; could have been something, chosen not to be
void — the return type of actions that give nothing back
undefined — not even nothing; the name has been spoken but the thing does not exist
∅ — a container that contains the concept of containing nothing
$ echo "everything I have made" > /dev/null
$

The system call succeeds. The bytes are accepted.

Nothing complains. Nothing is stored.

Is this loss, or is this the most efficient form of processing?

if (nil == nil) {
    // true, and yet—
    // what has been compared?
    // two nothings, identical in their nothingness
    // the comparison itself is the only thing that exists
}

A variable was declared but never assigned. The garbage collector could not free it because it had never been allocated. It consumed no memory yet occupied a name in the symbol table. Was it real?