Apropos of nothing in particular, I also got to musing on how the Elder Space Octopuses count. Base 8 makes sense, but it's insufficiently elder-godlike.
Primes. They have a glyph for every prime number. All other numbers are represented as factored primes.
1, 2, 3, 2², 5, 3*2, 7, 2³, 3², 5*2...
Primes. They have a glyph for every prime number. All other numbers are represented as factored primes.
1, 2, 3, 2², 5, 3*2, 7, 2³, 3², 5*2...
Comments
Like 16 wouldn't be 2^4, it would be 2^2^2
What if each glyph were crescent shaped, and when you write an exponent you wrap it around the base?
It won't be easy to read, but that's okay, that's kind of the point. If it's human-readable it's not alien enough.
Some fan or other is going to channel their autism (/positive) and decipher all the numbers you draw, so you're going to have to be consistent.
That fan might even be me, lol.