On 13 Sep 2007, at 15:26, Dorothy Robbie wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Andy Greener" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 3:10 PM > Subject: Re: [canals-list] Re: Demetrication >> Actually the most convenient thing in this modern day would have been >> a number system based on a multiple of two, like eight or sixteen. > > As in computery things, you mean?
Yes, if we'd had eight fingers instead, and an octal system of counting instead of decimal, I suspect that the mechanisation of binary arithmetic would have been developed far earlier, perhaps long before the discovery of electricity. Charles Babbage was on the right lines, but was probably hampered by decimal arithmetic over- complicating his mechanical difference engine design. People would certainly be more comfortable working with binary, coming from an octal background (cf hardware and software engineers who go the other way and use octal or hexadecimal as a convenient substitute for binary). Err, I should add, that this can only be pure speculation, but it would make the foundation of an interesting science fiction novel... hmmmm... (I can recall a number of stories where aliens had power-of- two number systems, but never eight-fingered humans :-).... Unless someone knows different! -- Andy Greener n.b. Whisper Pangbourne, UK http://www.nb-whisper.com "Standards are an endurance sport."
