Ternary Computer - Ternary Computers in Popular Culture

Ternary Computers in Popular Culture

In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Time Enough for Love, the sapient computers of Secundus, the planet on which part of the framing story is set, including Minerva, use an unbalanced ternary system. Minerva, in reporting a calculation result, says "three hundred forty one thousand six hundred forty... the original ternary readout is unit pair pair comma unit nil nil comma unit pair pair comma unit nil nil point nil".

Virtual Adepts in Mage: The Ascension use ternary computers.

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