In the original Shadow System post, I described the rules for a theoretical 10-digit binary system in the form of
1-3-3-3 or 0-3-3-3. If the first digit was 0, you would use the original image. If the first digit was a 1, you would use the shadow image.
To use it, you would have to build the full 2704 shadow system, so it scores no points over the Ben System in that respect. The reading of the 1’s and 0’s is so hard to get out of your mind that for as long as I practiced it, which wasn’t very long I admit, I couldn’t help but read 4 chunks of information instead of 3. In short, it was vastly inferior to Ben’s formulation. It was worth a shot I suppose. I thus resigned to the use of the 3x3 matrix system, which I quite like, and yet, the disadvantages it would have compared to Ben’s 10-digit formulation in 30 minute binary, which is the only binary event at the WMC, kept me wishing there was some way to devise a 10-digit system with only the 1352 required objects to use the initial phase of the Shadow System, which works very well on its own and is far easier to complete.
So the other day, I worked it out. On the expert level, a sound argument could be made that my 10-digit formulation is inferior to Ben’s formulation, but by very little. With the time you save by not building a 2704 image system, you could very easily catch up and surpass Ben System users. But in the long run, Ben’s wins out. However, the gap in efficiency between these two formulations is, I believe, considerably smaller than the gap in efficiency between a 1352 and a 2704 system. And that gap, while notable, is certainly not so great that the construction of a 1352 image card system should be written off. In short, these 10-digit systems are close.
Explanation soon.