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Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

nature.com

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Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#71

Post by mrslave »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #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…

And relevant to a classic contradiction in the startup community: idea vs (execution and capital). What you (say or think) matters a lot less than what you do.

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#72

Post by tomsmeding »

taneq wrote: post #70
corysama wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Wait, green means new?

I believe it means "throwaway"

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#73

Post by [deleted] »

taneq wrote: post #70
corysama wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Wait, green means new?

[deleted]

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#74

Post by chandler »

19eightyfour wrote: post #28
1001101 wrote: post #11

While not intended to be used mathematically, the I Ching hexagrams developed around 1000AD represented the binary numbers from 0-63 (2^6), as discovered by Leibniz who was quite fond of binary himself.

That is weird, right? Where did the precise use of broken and unbroken lines, in all the combinations necessary to represent binary 0 to 63 originate? It's a compact representation to label 64 different things using 6 "sticks"...but why did they do it like this? Were they aware of binary numbers?

> ...but why did they do it like this?

...because people are smart. People have _always_ been smart, it's one of the defining attributes of humanity.

It strikes me oddly (not specifically your comment, but the general color accompanying these kinds of articles)--there's a kind of ground assumption that by looking into the past, one sees nothing but a gradually descending IQ.

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#75

Post by molticrystal »

petersjt014 wrote: post #13

Of course, we all know what they would have used if they were real pros: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system

How about going in the opposite direction and using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number

Or could combine the two for even more joy.

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#77

Post by jlebrech »

torrent-of-ions wrote: post #76
jlebrech wrote: post #69

Oh well, no more computers for us then http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/cultural-appropriation-m...

A guy in an English suit asking for cultural appropriation to be made illegal. Oh the irony.

I find that funny, but remember everyone else is allowed to appropriate white culture because reasons.

This just seems like tribalism to me, yet the same people want open borders and freedom of movement, but not of ideas and culture.

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#78

Post by pilsetnieks »

chandler wrote: post #74
19eightyfour wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is weird, right? Where did the precise use of broken and unbroken lines, in all the combinations necessary to represent binary 0 to 63 originate? It's a compact representation to label 64 different things using 6 "sticks"...but why did they do it like this? Were they aware of binary numbers?

> ...but why did they do it like this? ...because people are smart. People have _always_ been smart, it's one of the defining attributes of humanity. It strikes me oddly (not specifically your comment, but the general color accompanying these kinds of articles)--there's a kind of ground assumption that by looking into the past, one sees nothing but a gradually descending IQ.

> looking into the past, one sees nothing but a gradually descending IQ

Actually, it quite literally might be so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Though it's questionable as to how IQ is related to actual intelligence over time.

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#79

Post by arethuza »

tomsmeding wrote: post #72
taneq wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, green means new?

I believe it means "throwaway"

Pretty sure it just identifies to logged in users that a particular account is relatively new.

After all, who is to know that a "throwaway" account actually gets thrown away?

Re: Polynesian people used a kind of binary number system 600 years ago (2013)

#80

Post by 19eightyfour »

chandler wrote: post #74
19eightyfour wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is weird, right? Where did the precise use of broken and unbroken lines, in all the combinations necessary to represent binary 0 to 63 originate? It's a compact representation to label 64 different things using 6 "sticks"...but why did they do it like this? Were they aware of binary numbers?

> ...but why did they do it like this? ...because people are smart. People have _always_ been smart, it's one of the defining attributes of humanity. It strikes me oddly (not specifically your comment, but the general color accompanying these kinds of articles)--there's a kind of ground assumption that by looking into the past, one sees nothing but a gradually descending IQ.

I agree. People are also arrogant. We like to look back and think "how quaint" and we are better than them. It's humbling to think that we actually weren't. But it's probably not very adaptive to think that way. Since, believing we are better now, by falsely diminishing the whatever metric of the past, probably helps us keep going forward to create the bright future.

Hopefully without repeating the mistakes of the past tho!

Even that phrase "mistakes of the past" is telling, right? I mean it's not like, IMHO, you hear a similar amount of talk about, "the brilliance of the past", except it a sort of quaint, dismissive way: "oh, look, plumbing in ancient Rome, weren't they sort-of clever!"

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