The only true base is binary. I'm not even kidding, I still sometimes convert numbers to binary for the sake of simplifying operations if I'm tired. Have you ever tried calculating square roots in binary? It's shockingly easy compared to decimal.
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2025
550 points (95.5% liked)
Programmer Humor
28225 readers
1186 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Alien has 4 fingers...nice touch
You mean 10 fingers
Oh, you must be using base 4. You see, Phoenix alpha uses base 10.
That's base 22, for all the base 10 users out there.
all your base are belong to us
There are only 10 types of people:
the ones that expected a binary joke, and
the ones that expected a ternary joke, and
the ones that expected a quartenary joke, and
...
...and all of them are using base 10.
We have N fingers, naturally.
And it works just as well, if we reverse the roles:
🪨🪨🪨🪨🪨
🪨🪨🪨🪨🪨
🪨
Human: There are 11 rocks.
Alien: Oh, you must be using base A. See, I use base 10.
Human: No, I use base 10. What is base A?
Roman : There are XI rocks.
(hexadecimal)
Based.
This post made me decide to go to sleep because I'm too fucking tired for this shit
Thanks
1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30…
So should I be saying base 9+1?
for that one alien, you may say :
"base 3 + 3 + 3 + 1"
For universal other sentient beings, say :
"base 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1"
"I'm 16, but in base 1, I'm 10000000000000000 years old. My ID just needs to be updated."
Since in base 2 you have two numerals that are (0, 1) ...
Then, in base 1 you would have only one numeral.
if it was (1) then you could write :
( , 1, 11, 111, ...)
With a sign (-) for negative numbers :
( ..., -111, -11, -1, , 1, 11, 111, ... )
I think the best way I've seen was to just poke the number of holes in the dirt or draw a picture, labeling them until you get to your base switching moment.
Oh, sorry we're base 22
A base-neutral system for naming numbering systems (by jan Miseli) is my favorite solution for this problem.
Oh fuck oh shit I'm too high to handle this RN!
Is this from the Hail Mary trailer?
Amaze! jazz hands
Correct
Base 1 is the only universal counting system.
They are using base 1111 and base 1111111111. Instead of digits, you can represent numbers using rocks, if needed.
"You must mean Base 22"
Base 4 but indexes start at 1
My species uses e as its base because that is proven to be mathematically optimal. In our number system, humans use base 2.3025850... (but written entirely as powers of e using our far superior elegant notation, of course!)
Only works in written form. Unless the alien says the number as one-zero.
Also, in a bijective number system, every base is 11. (they don't have 0)
edit: not true, brainfart
There is nothing about 10 in its pronounced form that means it HAS to come after 9.
No. If you write 11 in base b, bijective number system or not, that's b+1, not b.