Rationale behind truth values I originaly asked a question on Programmers.SE to know why $0$ was consider $\text{false}$ and all the other [integral] values were considered $\text{true}$. That was a huge debate and many said it was a legacy from Boolean algebra where $0$ is indeed $\text{false}$ and $1$ is $\text{true}$.
Somebody suggested I go further and ask here why this is actually the case in Boolean algebra. So here is the question: what is the rationale for $0$ to be $\text{false}$ and $1$ to be $\text{true}$ and not the other way around in Boolean algebra?

The numbers you use essentially don't matter. But if you want to represent your $2^4$ truth functions (see Wikipedia) using arithmetic, then $0,1$ come in handy. This is because their properties of being the additive and multiplicative neutral element simplifies some computations.
You can represent the functions using any numbers, really. If $a$ can be a number representing $\text{true}$ or another number representing $\text{false}$, then 
$$\text{NOT}(a):=\text{true}+\text{false}-a$$
works out for defining the negation. For example 
$$\text{NOT}(\text{true}):=\text{true}+\text{false}-\text{true}=\text{false}.$$
Here follows a nice graphic showing all the general constructions. As examples, the use of $\{0,1\}$ and also $\{-1,1\}$ is demonstated. Notice how using $0$ "for $\text{false}$" eliminates all the terms involving the number $s_0$, making the $\{0,1\}$ column specifically short and simple for computations.

