explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:764: One Two

2013-08-30T22:09:45Z

Understudy: add to talk

I believe this is also a reference to the discworld universe, where the trolls have a base three number system which is mistaken to be primitive by most (basically one, two, many, many-one, many-two, many-many and so on)[[Special:Contributions/85.164.251.29|85.164.251.29]] 09:03, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

You are correct, Discworld gets the one two three reference from the one two three infinity by George Gamow. The line the Count uses in the comic is almost a direct quote in the first chapter about the primitive Hottentots tribe. The one other thing I failed to mention in my original creation of this page was the myth about vampires and OCD. That dropping seeds while fleeing vampires was a way to escape because they were forced to compulsively count the seeds. However I wasn't sure how many would remember the myth. Thank you for looking at this. [[User:Understudy|Understudy]] ([[User talk:Understudy|talk]]) 19:23, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Actually, the Discworld trolls have a base four number system, not three. [[User:Sciepsilon|Sciepsilon]] ([[User talk:Sciepsilon|talk]]) 02:19, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Excellent, I have not read the series in many many years. Thank you for the information. [[User:Understudy|Understudy]] ([[User talk:Understudy|talk]]) 22:09, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Talk:764: One Two

2013-08-25T19:23:07Z

Understudy: added to talk

764: One Two

2013-02-13T02:42:42Z

Understudy: The Count can't count as high as the Hottentots.

From the book One, Two, Three, Infinity by George Gamow

Chapter one
Big Numbers
How high can you count?

There is a story about two Hungarian aristocrats who decided to play a game in which the one who calls the largest number wins.
"Well," said one of them,"you name your number first."
After a few minutes of hard mental work the second aristocrat finally named the largest number he could think of.
"Three," he said.
Now it was the turn of the first one to do the thinking, but after a quarter of an hour he finally gave up.
"You've won,"he agreed.
Of course the two Hungarian aristocrats do not represent a very high degree of intelligence and the story is probably just a malicious slander, but such a conversation might actually have taken place if the two men had been, not Hungarians, but Hottentots. We have it indeed on the authority of African explores that many Hottentot tribes do not have in their vocabulary the names for numbers larger than three. Ask a native down there how man sons he has or how many enemies he has slain, and if the number is more than three he will answer "many." Thus in the Hottentot country in the art of counting fierce warriors would be beaten by an American child of kindergarten age who could boast the ability to count up to ten!

One, Two, Three, Infinity is available as a free pdf download. (Use here is also considered fair use under US copyright)

Mouse over text:

Cue letters from anthropology majors complaining that this view of numerolinguistic development perpetuates a widespread myth. They get to write letters like that because when you're not getting a real science degree you have a lot of free time

The comic contains the dialog that parodies an American children's TV show known as Sesame Street. The character is known as the Count who helps with counting numbers in sequence. The character of the Count usually has a laugh after counting numbers that is directed to be an innocent version of the sinister laugh that is a stereotype of old Hollywood horror films. In the book One, Two, Three, Infinity the Hottentots can count to three but do not count numbers higher than three. The TV Count instead of continuing the number sequence to three says many in place of three.

Randall in his mouse over text mocks the anthropology majors for what is possibly considered a widespread myth among current anthropology majors about primitive tribes and their ability to count. Randall makes a jab at the anthropologists saying they would have time to write letters to complain about things because they don't have to spend time doing real science and thus real research.