[lit-ideas] Re: Correction to my reply to Correction
- From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:24:29 -0500
"Andreas Ramos" writes:
: Computers don't read numbers. They only read binary states: on or off. The nu
: mber 3 to a
: computer is 011 (that's not eleven). off-on-on. (I threw in the start zero so
: you can tell
: the diff between off and on.)
011 can represent the number that is represented by the glyph "3", but
it might just as well represent the string "false, true, true" or vice
versa---but those representations are to us, not to the computer. A
computer can no more understand a representation than it can understand
a joke.
Which reminds me of an old question: What is the difference between an
accoutant and a computer?*
: These on/off states can be dots, bumps, holes, flashes of light, etc. All tha
: t matters is
: that there are two distinct states: this/that, off/on, yes/no.
:
: The same with letters. When you press m on your keyboard, a chip in the keybo
: ard turns that
: press into a code string (perhaps 10010111011, or similar), which is then fed
: to the
: computer.
I think that it is inaccurate---or at least misleading---to say that
computers "read" anything.
When I press a key on my keyboard what happens is usually much more
complicated than that---involving scan codes and interrupts and registers
and what not. But sometimes nothing happens at all.
*The answer is that a computer has a sense of humour.
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu
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