From ragnarok@pobox.com Fri Sep 28 21:25:18 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: raganok@intrex.net X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 29 Sep 2001 04:25:18 -0000 Received: (qmail 71465 invoked from network); 29 Sep 2001 04:25:18 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m8.onelist.org with QMQP; 29 Sep 2001 04:25:18 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO intrex.net) (209.42.192.250) by mta1 with SMTP; 29 Sep 2001 04:24:54 -0000 Received: from Craig [209.42.200.34] by intrex.net (SMTPD32-5.05) id AD1BD6E8009C; Sat, 29 Sep 2001 00:24:59 -0400 Reply-To: To: Subject: RE: [lojban] periodic hexadecimal reminder Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 00:24:54 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 In-Reply-To: X-eGroups-From: "Craig" From: "Craig" >>Tell me a culture that uses a base lower than 10 (as opposed to >>no base at all). >Look, I really don't want to have to start yelling RTFM, but statements >like these are just inexcusable. Have you bothered to *check* that >cultures using bases lower than 10 exist? And why should I have to do your >homework for you? >http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/maths/mm2217/ocm.htm >http://euslchan.tripod.com/index.html >Of course decimal is culture-specific. the first lists only one that it gives an example for with a base (as opposed to a lack of one a la one-two-many) lower than ten, and that is the ancient Egyptians, who are all dead. The second lists a few lower bases without any examples to back it up. However, I must agree that Lojban does not in fact count as neutral vis a vis the ancient egyptians, who will likely have trouble learning a higher base. As soon as time travel is invented, we will need to switch lojban over to base 4 before we can effectively teach it as a means of communication 5000 years ago. Seeing as lojban has already chosen to use a higher base than would be neutral, why not go to hex? I had felt that decimal was neutral, though I had not known how ancient Egypt counted, but I like higher bases because when you have to say out every digit as in lojban they are much less verbose. My pgp key id in Lojban: in hex it is mugaicidaupaxeizevo, but in decimal it is pamuvozeciparezemuxa - 8 vs 10 syllables. And the difference is greater with larger numbers. --la kreig.daniyl. 'segu le bavli temci gi mi'o renvi lo purci .i ga le fonxa janbe gi du mi' -la djimis.BYFet xy.sy. gubmau ckiku nacycme: 0x5C3A1E74