Computer-y World
The digital world is a fascinating phenomenon. The idea that everything is made up of zeros and ones baffles me. In Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared episode four, a computer named Colin teaches the main trio about the digital world. Spoiler alert: it gets eerie. You have been warned. I found it interesting to hear about the history of the word digital. Eyman’s section Digital provides clear research into what digital actually means. He explains how to use it and that we can link digital systems to rhetoric.
The World is Digital
Eyman discusses the definition of digital outside of relating to computers. He claims that “any system made up of individual elements satisfies the technical definition” (Eyman 19). In contrast to the antonym “analog,” the technical meaning of digital relates to coded methods of communication. Eyman mentions examples of non-computer-based digital systems such as Morse Code and Braille. He also mentions that writing is also a digital system. I find this interesting because writing is not based on a binary system. How could all writing be digital? Eyman refers to Angel Haas, who notes that “ Digital also refers to our fingers, our digits, one of the primary ways . . . through which we make sense of the world and with which we write into the world” (Eyman 19). Historical ways of writing, such as hieroglyphics and Chinese logograms, are digital because of how their civilizations used them – with fingers and codes.
So does this mean, then, that sign language is a digital system? What about lexis in discourse communities? Those groups have their own language in which some speak in code. I believe there is a blurry line between what counts as digital and what is simply just analog. However, this can of worms has made me realize that the digital world goes beyond a computer. In class, Dr. Friend taught us how to count off our fingers “digitally.” In this regard, we use our fingers as codes. While I am still attempting to process this concept, it fascinates me at the same time. The digital world is not just buttons, emails, and futuristic technology. Digital is a system of communication, writing and rhetoric. So no, Colin. There are more than three things to do in the digital world.
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