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Every base is base 10 (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The most reliable way to communicate bases would probably be using unary. Now if your alien is using unary, that might not work, but it should for all higher bases.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not sure if I fully understand.
I was thinking, wouldn't it be easiest to describe the system you use by taking the last number in your first decimum and then saying you increment it with one?
E.g. for base ten this would be: base 9 + 1
For binary it would be: base 1 + 1
For hexadecimal it would be: base F + 1
Etc.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But if you're talking to an alien that uses base 4, they don't know what you mean by "base 9+1". Wtf is a 9?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yes. Although at least you will both be aware that you are using different systems