Important bit to the two people concerned with it.) Information, I surely don’t mean that the information borders on the (By saying that a bit conveys a “small” amount of Information possible, more complex information can be conveyed with But because a bit represents the smallest amount of The thing about the bit is that it conveys very LettersĪnd words and Morse code and Braille and decimal digits convey informationĪs well. Now that’s a bold statement, and of course, bits aren’t the only things that convey information. In the computer age, the bit has come to be Has a meaning beyond the binary digits used byĭolphins for counting. Sometimes when a new word is invented, it also assumes a new Small portion, degree, or amount,” and that normal meaning is perfectīecause a bit-one binary digit-is a very small quantity indeed. Of course, the word has the normal meaning, “a We can’t do much of anything with just a 0.ĭigit, is surely one of the loveliest words invented inĬonnection with computers.

If we want something simpler thanīinary, we’ll have to get rid of the 1, and then we’ll be left with just aĠ. It’s the simplest number system possible. Lobsters) or even two (if we were dolphins).īinary number system. Number system on eight (if we were cartoon characters) or four (if we were It’s prettyĬlear that we base our number system on ten because that’s the number of fingers we have. All you need is aīit, and by that I mean all you need is a 0 or aĪs we discovered in the previous chapters, there’s nothing reallyĪll that special about the decimal number system that we normally use for counting. You don’t need a sentence to say yes or no you don’t need a You can choose from lots of ways to say yes or no if that’s all you Or a flashlight in the window, turned on or off. Or a sign hung on the door: “Closed” or “Open.” In the front yard: Perhaps “Merge” or “Wrong Way.” Perhaps more awkward to put into verse) would be a choice of traffic signs Love me anymore but you’d still like to be friends.” Instead, he made itĮqually effective as the absence or presence of a yellow ribbon (but You want to think about it for a while” or “Tie a blue ribbon if you don’t Orlando did not sing, “Tie half of a yellow ribbon if These are two clear-cut, mutually exclusive alternatives. My roof.” And he wanted the absence of a yellow ribbon to mean You’ve been in prison for three years, I still want you back with me under He wanted a yellow ribbon tiedĪround the tree to mean “Yes, even though you messed up big time and Despite the complex feelings and emotional histories that would haveīeen at play in the real-life situation the song was based on, all the man Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” he wasn’t asking for elaborateĮxplanations or extended discussion.

When Tony Orlando requested in a 1973 song that his beloved “Tie a

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