The history of ‘zero’ remains unsettled
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
The "ones and zeros" way of talking about computers to a general audience is a bit of a cliche at this point IMHO.
The squirrelly nature of zero in a purely physical sense is interesting to focus on. e.g. if you use the fingers on your hand to count, then zero can be represented by either a closed fist, or by the absence of the hand altogether (unary numbers). No need to involve bleep-bloop-computers or even a sheet of paper.
I'm coining a phrase: "Unary is the native number system of the eyeball."
Also, I'd probably pick a different source if I were expecting deep commentary about science or math. That's not intended as a slight, it's just about the target audience.