131 points

I like the detail that there alien has 4(10) fingers as opposed to the 10(22) that the human has.

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35 points

Now I get the joke.

Thanks!

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108 points
*

Can we all use base 12?

It will be a shower of shit for like 50 years but then it will be marginally better for pretty much everyone.

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86 points

42* years. Centuries are now 84 years. We are living in the 19th century! I rate this idea 12/12.

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19 points

5/7 movie

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9 points

shut the f*k up rob

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1 point

I rate it A/10, it’s a really efficient numbering system but I personally will have a really hard time adjusting

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30 points

50 years? I bet we couldn’t even agree on how to write “11” & “12” on such short notice. (See: date format, encoding, etc)

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18 points
*

Well we write 12 like this: 10

It’s easy

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5 points

oops I mean “10” & “11”

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9 points

we could just go with the hexidecimal way and go with A,B,C for 10,11 and 12

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16 points

No, 12 in base 12 is 10, not C. But yes, 10 can be A and 11 can be B

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4 points

That’s pretty confusing in algebra, maybe normal sentences too

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1 point

Over my dead body.

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2 points

The current standard seems to be an upside down 2 and 3

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4 points

An upsidedown 3 is just a 3…?

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26 points

Some people argue that it would be harder to count on your fingers but we could just surgically give everyone more?

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28 points

There are 12 sections on your fingers (excluding your thumb) you then use your thumb to count to 12 on one hand.

Two hands can allow you to count to 24. Which is way higher than 10. Base 12 is better!

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18 points

Binary’s the way. 1023 with 10 fingers

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10 points

With 2 hands you can count to 144.

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3 points

Bold of you to assume I’d ever remember this counting technique. Hell I’m shocked I remember counting my fingers for base 10…

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1 point

Use the other hand to count twelves! Each time you fill up one hand, add one to the other. That way you can get all the way to 156, which is probably more than you’d ever want to count one by one anyway

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-1 points

To be fair, you should be comparing 2 hands in base 12 to 2 hands in base 10, I. E. 20:24. Still a real difference, but not the 10:24 difference you pointed out.

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8 points
*

Binary is very good for counting with your fingers. With both hands you can count to 1023. One hand is 31, which is still usually more than you typically need to count. It’s also trivial to do once you know how binary works. It takes very little thought, though potentially the decoding could take a bit depending on your proficiency.

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5 points

I made it to 27 on my first attempt, so def messed up somewhere. Also, my fingers don’t want to work that way.

Doable.

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5 points

When was the last time you’ve actually needed to count something on your fingers?

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18 points
*

✌🏻 days ago

Edit: 👌🏻 days ago

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1 point
*

I find it useful if I’m counting only specific instances of something that meet some criteria. That way my brain can focus on picking out the right things and not have to worry about keeping the current count in mind. I use the method with your thumb on each segment of your fingers though, so you can get up to twelve with one hand and 156 with both

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3 points

Billions of years ago, our collective great-great-great-[several million more]-grandparent evolved a fin with a five bone structure. That idiot didn’t know anything about common denominators, and now we’re stuck with this numeric system that can’t divide things into thirds without causing issues.

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1 point

Vertebrates appeared less than a billion years ago.

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21 points

This would be great. I was researching why we don’t have 10 based clocks and then I saw a video about why a 12 and 60 based system is actually much more convenient and now I would love a ‘dozen based metric system’

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15 points

50 years? We can’t even switch to metric.

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2 points

Every civilised country on earth uses metric.

Only the really shitty ones use imperial. Imperial is just stupid (unless you count in base 12 ironically)

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11 points

Why base 12 though? Base 16 is even better. And base 60 is even better than that!

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26 points

Common denominators. You can divide base 12 into half, thirds, fourths, and sixths and still use integers. I find thirds to be particularly useful, so base 16 is out. Base 60 can do it, but that’s getting unweildly.

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9 points

There are no common denominators in base 12 that you can’t use in base 84, and the latter also has 7 as a common denominator.

I, for one, vote for changing our base to 84.

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3 points

Can’t do base 12 on fingers. I prefer base 8.

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Base 69?

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6 points

Nice

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2 points

so, 60 years in base 10

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2 points

Or better yet, base 6?

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2 points

nah we should use binary, anything else is cringe.

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1 point

That’s Acadian, right? It was originally based on the number of easy to count bones in your fingers (12-24)

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90 points

There are 10 types of people: Those who understand binary and those who don’t.

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60 points

And those who didn’t expect the joke to be in base 3

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10 points

You forgot the ones who expected it to be in base 4.

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2 points

i still dont understand the joke…

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79 points

Based.

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56 points

I like that the alien has 4 fingers. Fitting!

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27 points

It’s 10 fingers. Just keep your freaky 11 finger hands of this serious discussion

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3 points

Wouldn’t it be 22?

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3 points

Yes, in total, but 11 per hand

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