4 ms·
I wonder why every alien-oriented mathematical thing I've seen includes binary. It doesn't seem very important to me to communicate that we understand base two
by georgieporgie 15y ago
I wonder why every alien-oriented mathematical thing I've seen includes binary. It doesn't seem very important to me to communicate that we understand base two, versus showing some more advanced mathematical formulas.
- onemoreact 15y agoThe assumption is they will understand counting dots easily, = sign, then base 2, then another = sign, then base 10. It's to help both with the = sign and figuring out we use base 10.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- georgieporgie 15y agoI don't see how base two has anything to do with improving the clarity of base ten. The only use for it I can see is with adding reinforcement for the equals sign, but that just doesn't seem very necessary when you show dots next to 1..10, then a couple of larger numbers.
- scott_s 15y agoUsing dots to indicate what number we mean with our glyphs doesn't scale. So we need an intermediate notation to bootstrap the process.
- georgieporgie 15y agoI don't recall any base two which wasn't next to dots.
- scott_s 15y ago7 and higher: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/images/image003.gif http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/images/image003.gif
- ars 15y agoBecause binary in fundamental. You can pick any higher base you want, but everyone understand binary, so it's useful for transmitting information. > versus showing some more advanced mathematical formulas We aren't trying to teach them math, or show off. It's about setting a method of communication.
- jjcm 15y agoBecause we've learned from the Rosetta stone that having more than one language system is extremely helpful for translating things. Translating something like this with no knowledge of the human race is an enormous endeavor. By providing three bases (base 1, base 2, and base 10), it'll be much easier to extrapolate their meaning. Base 1 should be fairly universal, and since much of our world today revolves around base 2 and 10, having each of those present will make for an effective starting point. Think of it this way - if an alien probe landed on earth today, wouldn't it be a nice starting point to know that they use a mix of base 7, base 342, and base 61 for their number systems?
- georgieporgie 15y agoif an alien probe landed on earth today, wouldn't it be a nice starting point to know that they use a mix of base 7, base 342, and base 61 for their number systems? I doubt that would be useful information. I would be most interested in knowing what number systems they used natively. Humans (almost?) universally use base ten.