🚀 go-pugleaf

elf@halcyon.com (Elf Sternberg) writes:

>   I ran into an interesting problem last night, and it's a bit of a
>show about how frustrating these little details can be sometimes when
>writing science fiction.  Let's say I have a character with the
>following hand:
>        _   _   _
>   _   | | | | | |  Basically, this is a poor ascii attempt to render a
>  / \  | | |_| | |  hand with four digits.  But I can't stand the word
>  | |  | | [_] | |  'digits.'  So, let me ask my question:
>  \  \_| | | | | |
>   \             |  Is this a four-fingered hand or a three-fingered
>    \            |  hand?  In either case, do I count these fingers
>     \           |  (from left to right) as 'Thumb, first, second,
>      \          |  third,' or is it 'Thumb, second, third, fourth?'

Well, a thumb is a finger but a finger is not necessarily a thumb ...
so you have a four-fingered hand here. Mind, if (as you said) you're
talking about aliens you would run into the problem of defining what a
thumb or even a finger is. Taking a stab at thumb, i would say that if the
digit in question is jointed and swings largely indepedent of the other
digits, then you have a thumb. 

Now how you number it could be _very_ tricky ...

p-m

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au) Machine Intelligence Lab, LaTrobe Uni

        "Teenage sex, nuclear winter, Junior Miss fashion 
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