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b_b  ·  2270 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The “Wow! signal” of the terrestrial genetic code

Obviously symmetry in integers is insensitive to numerical system. Where I'm struggling is in their heavy use of decimal. I can't even begin to imagine why anyone would leave codes in decimal. It's an illogical choice that we only use because of the historical accident of having 10 fingers. Anyone hiding this code wouldn't know how the system could possibly evolve. What if octopi were the really smart ones? Their numbers would still have symmetry, but wouldn't look so nice in base 8.