This post could work with a variety of creatures, but I seem to enjoy talking about dolphins.

Many human civilizations that developed counting systems used a base of ten–and obviously the most prominent modern mathematical convention is to use base ten. It is simple enough to consider a reason for choosing to base a counting system on ten: we have ten fingers. Perhaps other factors came into play and perhaps not, but it is a reasonable enough guess.

Now let’s apply this same conclusion to dolphins. In a few million years, say that dolphins evolve to a higher level of intelligence and develop their own counting systems. Assuming dolphins do not develop fingers or any additional appendages they would have two front flippers, a dorsal fin, and a tail. Following the human convention for selecting a counting base, we might expect dolphins to use a binary (base two) counting system (counting with each flipper). Computer systems presently operate with a binary system, as a zero and one can be designated easily with low and high voltage, respectively. If binary computing is an advantage, then perhaps a dolphin society that primarily uses a binary counting system will have a technological advantage at some point in their development.

I’m telling you, watch out for the dolphins–but at least they’re friendly.