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Incas Used Binary?

Posted by Hemos on from the how-do-you-count-to-one-in-pi? dept.

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.'"

3 of 477 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why are we so surprized? by Cereal+Box · · Score: 0, Troll

    Hey, you know what? At least we have a written language. I'm not so impressed that the Incas used a complicated system of tying colored knots on string that *kinda* resembles binary when you consider how much easier it would've been to just write the information down.

  2. Re:Why are we so surprized? by Cereal+Box · · Score: 0, Troll

    Nobody is saying that the Incas didn't come up with some neat stuff... but to say that using a method of information storage that is not only hard to read but also to "write" (tying knots in string and painting them) is impressive when you consider that other civilizations of the time had WRITTEN LANGUAGES is laughable.

  3. Re:Why are we so surprized? by Cereal+Box · · Score: 0, Troll

    Sure, but it would've been easy to simply make colored dots on some sort of paper or leaf and this system would be much more portable and manageable.