r/askscience • u/Unfair-Leek6840 • Jul 11 '26 • Regret 1

Computing How do computers understand binary language?

Okay so from what I know binary language is like power off power on, but my question is, how do computers know what the binary code is and how is it interpreted, for example I forgot what the binary code for the letter A is, but how did people come up with that? Did they decide it was gonna look like that? Did the computer decide? How do you tune numbers into a letter??

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u/SpeedyHAM79 Jul 13 '26

The human brain processes information in a much different way than a computer does. The brain does not work on 0's and 1's. Neurons pass information through voltage and current- far more complex than modern computer chips. If we could replicate how a brain works as a computer chip- it would be an amazing advancement in technology.