Rule "Base 10": Be Precise in Your Speech



To a human, 10 is the number of fingers on our hands.  An 8 fingered alien would also number its fingers as 10.  The same can be said for a 16 fingered alien.  The reason is that when we translate to their number system, "10" takes on a new value.

Hexadecimal "10" = 16
Decimal "10" = 10
Octal "10" = 8
Binary "10" = 2

In fact "10" is just a universal concept for the base number of your number system.  No matter what number system that may be.  If we were to tell an alien race that we do math in Base 10 they'd either be overjoyed that we use the same system or disappointed that we weren't thoughtful enough to notice that from the user's point of view every number system is Base "10."

A better convention would therefore be to name your number system by 10-1, indicating the maximum single-digit value of the system as follows:

Hexadecimal F = 15
Decimal 9 = 9
Octal 7 = 7
Binary 1 = 1

Avoiding Miscommunication

When communicating with groups I find that often disputes can be resolved when you find a way to demonstrate to everyone that in fact they're seeing the same thing from different points of view.  Their differences are a matter of perspective, while their goal is shared.

A misunderstanding like the one here, however is more tricky.  The human and alien appear to be in agreement but in fact are not.  The alien and the earthling both say, "10."  The alien means an arbitrary number.  The Earthling means ten.

This type of miscommunication often passes unchecked because it's never even identified as a disagreement.  To mitigate, we should strive to use precise language in technical or critical communication.  This is especially true when communicating across cultures, when using a lingua franca, or when discussing an unfamiliar topic.
 
In managing something as precise as a rocket launch, for example it's perhaps no coincidence that we count down to a unambiguous zero rather than up to "10."

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