What Does it mean to be Digital?
When thinking of digital many people would jump straight to the idea of cell phones or the internet when in fact digital is much a much simpler idea that lead to the invention of those incredibly advanced technologies. Digital comes down to this: having two states or digits, 0 and 1.
A great example of this is the Jacquard loom. Invented in the 1800’s the Jacquard Loom presents a simple binary choice: either lift the thread or don’t. Simplicity of this kind is what would go on to create the most complicated machines in history. Eventually binary would be morphed into other languages such as morse code which swaps 1’s and 0’s for dots and dashes and eventually ASCII which is a language that converts our entire alphabet into binary.
Understanding what it means to be digital isn’t just about technology—it’s about how we represent and process information. At its core, “digital” means taking the messy, analog world and translating it into something that machines—and now even we—can understand, manipulate, and build upon.