The writer and scholar Stephen J. Gould of Harvard University ascribes the heightened popular expectations surrounding the turn of the millennium to the "base 10" mathematics of mainstream popular culture. Humans have 10 fingers, and most civilizations have used a base 10 numbering system.
著作等身的哈佛大學地質教授古爾德以科學家的本能提出的「千禧三問」，則更根本地將人類對千禧的憧憬首先歸因於主流文明的「十進數學」觀，認為人類這種爬起直立行走的動物，剛好長了十個手指頭，因而雖在世界各地各自演進發展文明，大多卻不約而同地採取十進法。