If you think this is cool you might also find the Marshall Island stick charts, and Polynesian navigation methods particularly intriguing. See
Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
51–60 of 125 posts
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
That last part feels a little aggressive in this case... The Wikipedia article he linked to is actually pretty interesting, relevant, and appropriate. Sure the presentation is tongue and cheek, but so are half of the comments on this site...
> but so are half of the comments on this site... Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
I agree that his comment didn't add all that much, but I think the snark on your end was a bit more distracting and irrelevant than his comment, and honestly his comment was kind of on topic. This site is thankfully strictly moderated and usually the discussion in the comments is very on topic, jumping at the chance to be smug like that degrades the quality of conversation much farther then being semi-relevant with a bit of a joke. Downvote and move on
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
That last part feels a little aggressive in this case... The Wikipedia article he linked to is actually pretty interesting, relevant, and appropriate. Sure the presentation is tongue and cheek, but so are half of the comments on this site...
> but so are half of the comments on this site... Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
Proposed solution - a colour picker of Information quality as vote tool?
Factual disputed - Factual accurat? (Red - Black)
Information Rich - Information Poor? (Black - Faded Text)
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but so are half of the comments on this site... Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
I agree that his comment didn't add all that much, but I think the snark on your end was a bit more distracting and irrelevant than his comment, and honestly his comment was kind of on topic. This site is thankfully strictly moderated and usually the discussion in the comments is very on topic, jumping at the chance to be smug like that degrades the quality of conversation much farther then being semi-relevant with a…
I started making comments like this after the tenth time seeing a green account make a joke, get downvoted to hell and reply "WTF! Why is Hacker News so mean to noobs!" (Peter was green an hour ago)
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#55Computers use base two because their most natural unit can occupy one of a couple states: 0 or 1. One, two, base two. Human hands, on the other foot, have ten fingers. Since our favorite mapping between things and integers is finger counting, we naturally end up with more than two states. Zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and the fully-extended state, ten. That's eleven states, which is why…
It's been speculated that prior to base ten (or maybe alongside it) people used base twelve (using knuckles) hence anachronisms like dozens (inches, hours), 60 (minutes) and 360 (degrees), etc.
Not correct, the frequency of multiples of 12 in human counting is thought to be because of the lunar cycle and that each human hand has 12 phalanges -- aka finger bones -- in the fingers excluding the thumb. See how the Chinese count to ten on one hand, using a combination of thumb and fingers, bent for some numbers, for six to ten. There are very few languages with a duodecimal system.
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#56Binary numbers have been in use since the balance scale was developed.
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#57The ability of the Polynesians to settle huge stretches of the Pacific might be one of the most impressive human achievements ever. Odds are they reached South America even if we never find direct evidence (there is some).
> Odds are they reached South America even if we never find direct evidence (there is some). Isn't sweet potatoes in Polynesia (which originated from South America) pretty much a proof?
Here in Hawaii the Hokulea is a big deal (http://www.hokulea.com) because they have taken modern day people, and using the Hawaiian methods of navigation they can still get around without modern technology and figure out where to go. Showing it wasn't just Polynesians sending out random boats hoping they would hit an island.
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but so are half of the comments on this site... Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
Proposed solution - a colour picker of Information quality as vote tool? Factual disputed - Factual accurat? (Red - Black) Information Rich - Information Poor? (Black - Faded Text)
That's what Slashdot did. Didn't help very much in the general case.
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#59"Polynesian people used binary numbers 600 years ago"
Disgrace to Nature for click bait. The number system might be clever but as described is not binary numbers.
Especially the claim in the introduction
"Binary arithmetic, the basis of all virtually digital computation today, is usually said to have been invented at the start of the eighteenth century by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz."
implying Leibnitz didn't invent binary and equate the existence of 4 numbers (10,20,40,80) which lack the simplicity of 2 states by representing it with KTPV with the invention of the binary number system is sensationalist.
Interesting the quote
“It’s puzzling that anybody would come up with such a solution, especially on a tiny island with a small population,” Bender and Beller say.
It's only puzzling to scientists from "Department of Psychosocial Science" but would not be puzzling to scientists from the "Department of Mathematics".
Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Odds are they reached South America even if we never find direct evidence (there is some). Isn't sweet potatoes in Polynesia (which originated from South America) pretty much a proof?
The origin of Polynesian sweet potatoes being from an old visit to South America is the most plausible origin story, but the lack of anthropological evidence is also a powerful dissuading factor. There's no oral stories of either the Polynesians or the South Americans of such a voyage taking place, like there was for the Viking colonization of Vinland (recalled in the Icelandic sagas).
Note, however, that the Australian aboriginals' oral histories
(songlines) lack any reference to coming from elsewhere, although DNA clearly demonstrates otherwise.
In such cases, if any given generation omits an element from its oral history (by choice or mistake), it is lost forever.