Thank you for this analysis. Whether it works (philosophically) or not, it seems there are two directions one can go in.

One is biological. The currency of our minds is discrimination -- determining what is and what is not. So perhaps "nothing" is "what is not"?

The other is looking at *similar* concepts like "absence" and "zero." If your dog is absent, what is in its place? If you subtract 3 from 3, what's left? Zero. Is zero nothing or is it a number?

This line of thought leads to me back to discrimination. Not to say it couldn't lead somewhere else.