Re: Ebisedian number system (I)

--- In conlang@y..., JS Bangs <jaspax@U...> wrote:

> > (ObTeaser: in the next post, we shall consider, aside from ordinals and
> > cardinals, the all-important question of "how does the Ebisedi answer the
> > question, `how many fingers do you have'?")
>
> This, to me, seems like it should have been answered before you ever did
> any of the other work. I know about the weird 3-based physics of the
> Ebisedan conworld, but unless they actually have 3 fingers I don't think
> that this would matter to them.  People learn to count long before they
> learn a whit about physics,
You can always blame it on religion, which is probably even older
than counting, and can justify just about any counterintuitive
social feature.  Just think of how there's no year "0" in our time
reckoning!  ;-)

I've been thinking about making a theocracy for my own little scifi
universe, where the number "0" is regarded as sacrilegious.  Math
-- even elementary -- would be rather complicated, with roman-style
numbers and plenty of special rules and exceptions so as not to hint
at the existence of "0".

Of course, high mathematicians might secretly work with a number
system including zero, and elaborately disguise their results in
the official number system so as not to rouse the attention of
the inquisitors.  =P


-- Christian Thalmann

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