Incas Used Binary?

Abhijeet Chavan writes "An article in the Independent reports that a leading scholar believes the Incas may have used a form of binary code 500 years before computers were invented. 'Gary Urton, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, has re-analysed the complicated knotted strings of the Inca - decorative objects called khipu - and found they contain a seven-bit binary code capable of conveying more than 1,500 separate units of information...If Professor Urton is right, it means the Inca not only invented a form of binary code more than 500 years before the invention of the computer, but they used it as part of the only three-dimensional written language.'"

Comments

Dont read it!

[tjensor]

Neal Stephenson was right! Its Snow Crash!

Re:Dont read it!

[more fool you]

Snow Crash, in the book of that name, is a virus that infects programmers if they just look at a certain document.

You mean like an NDA?

How advanced?

[m00nun1t]

I'd be *really* impressed if they had Duke Nukem 3.

I guess

[Daath]

That means that the Incas were a bit advanced! :P

Strings of cotton and wool

[ralico]

And if they washed and shrank them, would that have been data compression?

Does that mean

[T40 Dude]

that the Incas OWN SCO ????

Re:Does that mean

[Surak]

No. It means that the Incas invented the Internet, but I think that Al Gore invented the Incas, who in turn created the Internet. The SCO came along and they claim that they invented Al Gore. I don't get it either, don't worry.

Poor Microsoft

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

So that's prior art to their 1's and 0's patent then.

Re:Not unique

[tjensor]

So not only did they have binary - they had Oracle.

Thangyouverymuch I'll be here all week.

I'm confused

[LinuxParanoid]

Is it binary because it has NOTs, or binary because it has KNOTs?

Re:7 bits? - read the article ! it was emacs.

[Anonymous Coward]

for a short info:
it was seven binary choices the maker could make,
like type of cord, spin direction, etc, times 24 colours, which equals a 2^6*24, similar in construction to common IEEE float data type.
you have 7 digits for the information, and a not fully used 5 digit binary for selection of "ctrl-shift-meta-alt-cokebottle" modifiers.

basically: incas invented the earlies EMACS :-)

So Lemme Get this straight

[Evets]

We use binary code to be able to display strings in 24 bit color and they use strings in 24 colors to display binary code. The circle is complete.

Re:5, 7, and 10

[Glamdrlng]

5 and 10 are natural numbers because we have ten fingers, ten toes, etc. I see two possibilities: 1. The guy who invented this numbering system lost three fingers during an accident involving a rope, a pully, and a large block of sun-dried mud-brick. 2. The aliens who taught it to the Incas had seven fingers.

SCO sues Gary Urton, Harvard University

[McCall]

In other news, SCO is suing Harvard University for $1 Billion, for patent infringement.

A spokesperson for SCO said "One of the khipu contains binary representation of UNIX code, we can't tell you which khipu it is, but anyone who has read, heard or mentioned the Inca civilisation owes us money, and we will be seeking damages."

A spokesperson for the Inca civilisation was unable to comment due to being mummified.

The Incas did not have DN3, but...

[Prince_Ali]

The Mayan calendar is counting down to the release of Duke Nukem Forever!

Re:7 bits?

[myster0n]

That seventh bit must have been for the evil bit. Those guys were way ahead of their time !

Re:Why are we so surprized?

[dzerkel]

Bill Gatezaqql sez, "No one will ever need to count more than 127 of anything..."

Re:Message ?

[orasio]

3) imagine a beowulf cluster of these things

We have those.
We call them sweaters.