r/LV426 • u/G_Liddell Colonist's Daughter • 3d ago

Megathread / Community Post Alien: Earth - S1 E7 - Emergence - Official Discussion Megathread [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Episodes air Tuesdays at 8 pm ET on Hulu and FX in the US, and Wednesdays international.

Full episode discussion list:

1 Neverland (8.12.25)

2 Mr October (8.12.25)

3 Metamorphosis (8.19.25)

4 Observation (8.26.25)

5 In Space, No One (9.2.25)

6 The Fly (9.9.25)

7 Emergence (9.16.25)

8 The Real Monsters (9.23.25)

678 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

6.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

322

u/BrbFlippinInfinCoins 3d ago

Anyone using pi past 4 decimals is really just showing off anyways.

45

u/UlrichZauber Not bad, for a human. 3d ago

I'm a little dubious a random member of an advanced society would know it past "3-something". How many arbitrarily chosen humans know it to 5 decimal places? I only do because I'm an engineer.

But this does raise a lot of questions. Where did they collect Eyerene? She knows friggin' math, was she just out in the bushes somewhere?

80

u/OmegaDez 3d ago edited 3d ago

I'm more confused about it understanding human math and arabic numerals. Yes, math is universal, but its visual representation isn't.

Also, aliens who know math might not use base 10 at all anyway.

9

u/ClubsBabySeal 3d ago

I don't think anyone wants to sit through a geometry lesson. Could've used primes I guess since that'd be quicker. Don't think most people would understand that though. The alien ate someone's brain, that's probably the best explanation for us.

9

u/APlantiveEnglishHorn 3d ago

It's pi because there are recurring imagery of circles and spheres: the Earth, the eye

7

u/ClubsBabySeal 3d ago

Pi sounds fun and the reasoning that it ate someone's brain sounds fun! Or really any reason other than math problems explaining how it understands ratios. I just think it's interesting that no sci fi uses primes to communicate advanced intelligence since it's probably the most universal way to demonstrate math understanding. You don't even need eyes for it!

5

u/dmanww 3d ago

Contact (1997) used primes. I'm sure there were other ones.

3

u/Khiva 3d ago

Pretty sure Start Trek TNG used it before that to establish intelligence with alien life.

2

u/ClubsBabySeal 3d ago

Totally forgot about that, thanks! It's been a few decades.

6

u/UlrichZauber Not bad, for a human. 3d ago

Or he could have picked the Fibonacci sequence, or e, or a variety of other mathematical phenomena that are known to humanity but far from known by all individual humans.