The present exercise in computing concepts investigates the hypothesis that the binary devices developed in Babylon and later in China were the true forerunners of the modern computer. In other words, all they needed in order to do what the modern desk top computer can do, less the bells and whistles, was simple household circuitry. That being so, their power could have matched that of the Mark I although their speed might have been much slower.
If the Babylonians had invented current electricity, a Babylonian technopriest named Gates would have sat atop the highest ziggurat in the land practicing his new religion called "Iconography" and the entire history of this planet would have been radically altered. Imagine what would have happened if Moore's Law had started in 2,000 BC! Civilization 4,000 years later would be difficult to even imagine. Instead of the Hanging Gardens and Ishtar Gate being two wonders of the ancient world, our archaeologists might be unearthing the Hanging Gardens of Gates and Bill's Gate.
But this is a digression: back to binary. Britannica says, See "Boolean algebra". There we read, "The fundamental operations of Boolean logic, often called Boolean operations, are 'and', 'or', and 'not'; COMBINATIONS of these make up 13 other Boolean OPERATORS." Block letters, as above, are mine and are to emphasize concepts which will be expanded upon. The system of logic at work here is sometimes called combinatorial logic. The AND/OR/NOT operators are themselves combinations of the two binary operators which are ADDITION and SUBTRACTION. And is an add operator; or and not are subtract operators. How they can be computationalized through binary switches applying the logic of truth functions which connect these switches will be discussed later. If we can do all of arithmetic and all of logic by binary switching and also the basic control functions which are a special case of logic (If-The Logic) , it seems we have a primitive substitute for the CPU.
Operator/operation in present context means the same as rule or algorithm. The two operators of binary logic are add and subtract. Add 1 to binary 0 and you get 1. Subtract 1 from binary 1 and you get 0. ("digit" is something of an oxymoron since 1 is a digit but 0 is "nothing" so how can it be a digit?).
Either everything in mathematics or almost everything is built upon a foundation of binary logic, starting with two values, 0 and 1, using just two operators: add and subtract. Mathematicians like Penrose say there are exceptions so that not all of mathematics is binary-derived but that is a topic I will return to later.
Next: Given that anything under the sun can be described in words and words can be expressed in another binary system which is Morse code, why can we not translate everything under the sun into the binary symbols and thereby we see the awesome potential of AI and NLP (natural language programming).
This is one fantastic machine we are talking about. Discovery TV has said that the Space Shuttle has more parts than any machine on this planet but that is an error. The desk top computer before you is far more complex because each bit is a part and that part is not trivial if you realize that a binary digit can represent anything. The only present rival the computer has as a machine for changing the world is the nanomachine. Some day when the billions of dollars spent on nanotechnology R&D yield their expected returns, we can expect to see nanomachines capable of replication and terraforming entire planets.
http://www.geocities.com/ELECTRIC_ABACUS/page2