Re: Ebisedian number system (I)

H. S. Teoh sikyal:

> The whole triad business came about when the early Ebisedi became more
> sophisticated and started developing a philosophy rife with 3's and 5's.
> (It's not just the physics; general physical observations, which does show
> a triple-tendency, have imposed themselves into the philosophy of the
> Ebisedi.)  The original meaning of _kre'i_ may very well have been the
> equivalent of "several", or "a couple of", without being fixed at any
> particular number. And a system of counting by grouping into handfuls,
> similar to the triad system, may have been in place already. It was with
> the rise of the color-symbolic philosophy of the early Ebisedi that
> _krei'i_ came to specifically mean "three" (the connotation being, of
> course, that three constitute a "unit" group), and that the other triads
> of the series became fixed as powers of 3. They could very well have been
> vague collections of arbitrary magnitudes, before this base-3 system was
> adopted.
This is much, much more satisfying and pleases me greatly.  Full marks.
It reminds of how terms like "minion" and "score" are used in our
language, and how we count -illions by intervals of 3 powers of ten.

I'm curious--do you have a completish description of Ebisedi culture up
anywhere on the web?  I feel like I should learn more about it before I
judge it.

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

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