History Main / ComputersSpeakBinary

* While computers do use binary numbers, programmers prefer to use high-level languages like Platform/{{Python}} or C++ to save on programming time. Low-level bit-twiddling is generally reserved for system programming for operating systems and embedded controllers. Even then, developers usually prefer working in hexadecimal rather than binary.

* Back in the golden age of UsefulNotes/MainframesAndMinicomputers, a standard piece of any sizable computer installation was a front panel console with a lot of lamps or [=LEDs=] to show the on-off state of individual processor signals in real time. This display was accompanied by at least one set of toggle switches for the operator to input memory addresses and data in binary code, which was often vital to starting a computer after powering it on. (Fully automatic booting didn't become a standard and ubiquitous feature until the 1970s, due largely to advances in read-only memory technology.) A few early hobbyist-oriented microcomputers, most famously the MITS Altair 8800, were designed around similar front panels.

* In ''LightNovel/UnlimitedFafnir'', Atlantis was under attack from a being that could shut down electronic technology, so they carved the binary of their civilization's administrative program into stone tablets in an attempt to salvage their technology. In modern times, NIFL managed to recover these tablets and reproduce a lesser version of the program.

* Artificial intelligences and robots in the Marvel Universe are generally depicted vocalizing binary code when subject to major damage or critical system failure.

-->-- '''Joel''', ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', ''Film/HerculesAgainstTheMoonMen''

Computers in fiction are frequently portrayed at exchanging information or communicating mainly in binary, i.e in zeroes and ones. This is because RealLife computers use binary information in their internal processing, and authors then apply this well-known fact to depict how computers in general operate.

* "The Body Electric" by Music/{{Rush}}: "One zero zero, one zero zero, one, SOS. One zero zero, one zero zero, one, in distress!"[[note]]1001001 is binary for the ASCII code for uppercase 'I' (the song is allegedly about a machine mind achieving individual self-awareness)[[/note]]

* Encoding some things in Binary, such as numbers, does create certain limitations that wouldn't otherwise exist. The common standard binary floating point format, for instance, cannot exactly encode "1/10" as 0.1 is actually a ''repeating numeral'' (the same way you cannot exactly write "1/3" in decimal: you have to either round up or round down or spend the rest of your life writing threes)
** There are other ways of encoding numbers into binary that can precisely handle fractions, and even irrational numbers, but calculations with these methods are much slower than calculations using floating point approximations.
** Depending on how much precision you really need, you can get away with fixed-point arithmetic to do fractional operations. It's essentially dictating where 2^0 is. For instance, a decimal 1 could be in the 16th bit of a 32-bit number, meaning you have 16 more bits for fractions (which are negative powers of 2). The huge advantage is that not only do the addition, subtraction, and multiplication still work the same way, but you can essentially cheat division by multiplying by a fractional number. The MindScrew is that you have to remember where 2^0 is defined, because unlike its name may indicate, the binary point can shift.

* Quantum computers are computers that don't use just zeros and ones. Lo and behold they're more (asymptotically)[[note]]a quantum computer will, almost certainly, execute a lot less operations per second than a classical computer, but does allow for certain problems to be solved in fewer steps[[/note]] powerful than classical computers, or rather they might be if we can make them bigger than a few atoms in size.
** If you really want to blow your mind, the fundamental unit of quantum computing is the qubit, which can be in a superposition of zero and one.
*** To give an idea of how strange this is, it has been proven that the fastest way for a computer to search an unsorted database is for it to search each individual record, taking n time to search n records. A quantum computer can search the same database of n items in square root(n) time.

** This is all based on the assumption that we get past the very real and sometimes very large physical problems of building such computers, not to mention making them economically feasible.
*** Well, [[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2011/11/i-may-be-being-unduly-optimist.html seems like science has marched on]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' has an entire race of people, called Binomes, which are anthropomorphic zeroes and ones who can speak in binary. In one episode, a binome tells a joke in ones and zeroes, which, in this case, is actually a roundabout [[BilingualBonus substitution cipher]]: if you translate the ones and zeroes into decimal numbers, then the decimal numbers into letters, it becomes "[[OrphanedPunchline Take my wife, please!]]"

* ''{{Webcomic/Narbonic}}'' has [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic_plus/series.php?view=archive&chapter=36058#strip4 this strip]], in which Helen (normally a biologist) has been infected with computer geekdom.

* Encoding things in Binary does create certain limitations that wouldn't otherwise exist. The common standard binary floating point format, for instance, cannot exactly encode "1/10" as 0.1 is actually a ''repeating numeral'' (the same way you cannot exactly write "1/3" in decimal: you have to either round up or round down or spend the rest of your life writing threes)

* Related to the fact of binary computer chips, it is commonly stated that there '''is''' only "one" or "zero," depending upon the voltage flowing through them. However, if the voltage is turned off, it can't be either one OR zero, and is in what is called a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_%28negative%29 "Mu State."]]

Compare with {{Expospeak}}.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1605561072057892100 under discussion]] in the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/conversations.php?topic=renames Trope Repair Shop]].]]]]]]

* Back in the golden age of UsefulNotes/MainframesAndMinicomputers, a standard piece of any sizable computer installation was a front panel console with a lot of lamps or [=LEDs=] to show the on-off state of individual processor signals in real time. This display was accompanied by at least one set of toggle switches for the operator to input memory addresses and data in binary code, which was often vital to starting a computer after powering it on. (Fully automatic booting didn't become a standard and ubiquitous feature until the 1970s, due largely to advances in read-only memory technology.)

Computers in fiction are frequently portrayed at exchanging information or communicating mainly in binary, i.e in zeroes and ones.

It is an oft-repeated maxim that anything that existed when you were born is mundane and old-hat, anything that was invented in the first third of your life is exciting and novel, anything invented in the second third of your life is scary and incomprehensible, and anything invented in the last third of your life is an abomination of science run amok and is bent on corrupting our children, destroying civilization and -- [[GrumpyOldMan Hey! Get off my lawn, you kids!]]

The personal computer more or less came about when TV writers were right in that middle third. Writers do not really understand either computers or [[ItsASmallNetAfterAll the Internet]], and -- despite the fact that a fair demographic can barely even imagine a world without them -- assume that no-one else does either. The results of this ignorance are ideas such as AIIsACrapshoot, EverythingIsOnline, and this trope.

With very few exceptions, whenever a computer plays a major role in a story, you can expect to be treated to some (ofttimes bizarre) exposition about how a computer works, just to make sure you understand what this magic affair of a typewriter tethered to a television really is.

Specifically, you are exceptionally likely to have a character helpfully explain that, "A computer sees everything as a series of zeroes and ones."

This can be meant to imply several things: a computer is not capable of abstract thought; a computer can deal only with certainties, not probabilities or shades of gray; a computer cannot lie; a computer must behave logically; a computer can be programmed by tapping in binary instructions Morse Code-like by shorting across a circuit, among others. Every single one of these is wrong.

"A computer sees everything as a series of zeroes and ones." is true, but only in the same way as "a human sees everything as a matrix of hues and intensities" or "a dog is composed entirely of protons, neutrons, and electrons": it's technically correct, but not really meaningful in terms of interacting with the computer. The level at which a computer deals with "zeroes and ones" is the level of digital electronics, a level which is so far below the level at which you operate on the computer that it's actually comparatively ''difficult'' to deal with zeroes and ones directly. Even the most fundamental operations on a computer almost always deal with blocks of 8, 16, 32, or 64 of these zeroes and ones at a time. A simple computer circuit that adds two numbers and shows the result in two displays, will involve at least 7 basic integrated circuits and an insane amount of wiring. Modern circuitry is billions of times more complex, and the industry uses special hardware-description languages, such as VHDL, to automate the daunting task of designing such integrated circuits from scratch.

One common manifestation is that the writers treat binary as a ''language'', when it's actually just a number format (also called base-2). A series of binary numbers has no implicit meaning unless you know exactly how it's supposed to be interpreted: what binary format is being used (is it 8 bit? big-endian? how are negative numbers handled?) and what the data is supposed to represent (ASCII text? color values? hit points?). Consider that the letter-sequence PAIN means different things to speakers of English and French (it's French for "bread"). A MinusWorld is an example of what may happen when a program interprets data in the way it's not meant to.

A computer manipulates data according to a set of rules. The way that data is represented has no meaningful impact on the "philosophy" of a computer beyond the difference between digital and analog -- which becomes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_theorem completely academic]] if you toss enough bits at a problem.