My problem with math is always the arithmetic. I don’t have the short-term memory for it. I have the calculator here, and I think, “one and a quarter.” By the time that message gets to my fingers it has morphed to “one and a half.” Which in this case makes six inches of difference.
okay, now tell me — what do you get when you multiply six by nine in a base-thirteen system?
Now, what does this say? Actually, taken metaphorically, it synchronizes very well with the universe-view proposed in that particular reality. Base-thirteen is a very awkward number system; 13 is just an uncomfortable integer, for various reasons you can determine on your own. Assuming this is a suggestion that thirteen is the natural root of everything in the universe, mathematically, this would explain a lot of the awkwardness and unease and, to stretch and extrapolate, bureaucratic nonsense inherent to the process of existance. And there is an awful lot of it in the universal exhibition of the trilogy.
[Later note: This appears to be very common knowledge. Well. I had to figure it out on my own…]