Every part of our digital world, streamed movies, Excel files, and Zoom calls, only exists as ones or zeros*. More accurately, it is the representation of a one or a zero as an electrical state in some bit of electronics. How these and zeros are arranged makes all the difference, of course. Regardless of the details, it is quite magical when you stop to think about it—all this can come from such a simple system.
That is the great duality of our digital globe: it is both simple and complex.
Binary didn't start with modern computers, or even pre-modern, mechanical computers à la Charles Babbage. Artifacts and writings from China, India, and Egypt indicate that humans have long experimented with representing numbers or other items with just two states or symbols. It was Leibniz, the German polymath known for independently inventing calculus, who refined it for the modern age. In his "Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire" and other writings, he worked out binary notation, binary logic/math, and also shorthand for representing binary known as hexadecimal (for more, I recommend “Leibniz on Binary: The Invention of Computer Arithmetic” by Lloyd Strickland and Harry R. Lewis.
For me, binary was a gift from my father. He was a tool and die maker by trade, and he was always building and learning. So naturally, when the local school started an adult education class on computers, using an Alpha-Micro mini-computer, he enrolled along with my mother. I don't know why, but he knew that the future would be digital, and knowing how binary works was the first step toward that future.
Since taking a twelve-year-old to the computer lab at school was out of the question, he got a kit from Radio Shack designed to teach binary and soldered it together. I still remember when he got it working, brought it to me, and started explaining how to make the device count in binary.
It was then that I realized there were other ways to understand or talk about the world. I must have been aware of different languages by that point in my life, but the fact that this new way to represent the world was embedded in some bit of electronics that I could change and manipulate was powerful. That my Dad had made this electronic device and given it to me, clued me into the fact that whatever this was about, it was important!
Today, I still take great joy in explaining to others how to spell their name in binary or decode what 1000100 1001111 1000111 means. It lifts the veil of our digital world and lets people experience the same gift of excitement and understanding that my Dad gave me.
*Electronic enthusiasts will know that decimal (base 10) numbering is also used in digital circuits.
My commentary may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. I ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to my contact information.
📥Recent Talks, News and Videos
I gave a talk for the League of Women Voters and Danial Boone Library: Before You Vote: Artificial Intelligence, the Elections and Civic Dialogue.
I was quoted in this: KSHB 41 story: Fast food value meal wars heat up.
The University of Missouri is suggesting up a number of experts on AI for chatting with journalists and podcasters, including me!
📆 Upcoming Talks/Classes 👨🏫
I will be talking at the Workshop on Emerging Technologies for Digitalization at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Lima, Peru, on August 12. More information and will be available on the APEC Peru website.
I will be presenting “Managing the Learning Machine” at 8:00 AM on September 10th for the MU Retiree’s Association (In Person and Zoom). More information and Registration will be available on MU Retiree’s Association website.
My friend and colleague, Sophia Rivera Hassemer, is teaching “Technology Potpourri” for Osher on Sept 12, 19, 26, and Oct 3 from 9:30 to 11am, and I will be her assistant! It will be in person only at the Moss building, and will be very hands on with technology. More information and Registration will be available on the Osher website.
I will give a talk on Artificial Intelligence and The Elections on Tuesday, September 10, 6:30pm - 8:00pm at the Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City. More information is available on the Missouri River Regional Library website.
I will present “Harnessing AI for Nonprofit Growth” from
10:45 - 11:45 a.m., on November 7 via zoom. More information and Registration will be available on the New Chapter Coaching website.I will present “AI: Current Trends and Future Directions” for the Mid-Missouri PMI Chapter on November 12th at 7:30am via zoom. Registration will be available on PMI Mid-MO Chapter's website.
I enjoyed this article. I just started reading “Code” by Petzold to try to gain a little understanding about how binary code can hold so much information. I figured I needed to start there as a lead in to grasping AI.
You are the greatest!!!