Page 90 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Recounting the Binary Neeks

and their sequence. The majority of limbs, however, are
always available for other uses.

Archaeolinguistic analysis indicates language developed
several million local years ago; shortly thereafter a counting
system was devised. On Earth, the base of numbering
systems usually followed the number of digits on the hand,
five or ten. With only one free digit, the inhabitants of this
world naturally developed a binary counting scheme; that is,
using two as the base instead of ten. As there are only two
symbols in this system, one and zero, the locals can easily
represent them with their free digits. An extended digit means
‘one,’ and a curled-up digit stands for ‘zero’.

The number of digit positions available depends upon the
number of free limbs; with twenty limbs, decimal values up to
21
1,048,575 can be displayed (2 - 1). In binary notation, this
would appear as 11111111111111111111. It is customary to
place the most-significant digit on the limb directly behind
the head and work downward.

From a very early age the young are able to use all their limbs,
if necessary, in counting. The social structure depends entirely
on this anatomically-derived number system. It is, briefly
stated, a binary hierarchy of total membership and absolute
authority. Infants join as soon as they master binary counting,
and advancement is purely by seniority; the leaders are
necessarily also the elders. The rank each individual holds in
society is identical to his binary name, although this will
change continuously throughout his life.

Upper Ranks of Hierarchy Showing Advancement

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