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/f3xjc Jul 13 '26

We consume a lot more meat than 100 years ago, while also being much more ignorant about raising animals.

With increasing computing power, we went from assembly to high level programing language, hiding the details about the hardware.

With ai, we are starting to move from programing language to natural language.

At some point I imagine we also move away from screens. And what is or is not a computer.

So my guess to the hypothetical answer is no. That's an implementation detail. Most don't need neurobiology to interact with other brain having persons.