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How philosophy created the binary code

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How philosophy created the binary code

How philosophy created the binary code, Three Wise Monkeys...

Vicky Zhao
Jun 27, 2022
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How philosophy created the binary code

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Hello intersectional thinkers 👋

Greetings from Nikko where the 🙈🙊🙉 monkeys were carved into the magnificent Toshogu Shrine in 1617, more than 400 years ago.

Toshogu’s San Zaru

Today’s line up:

0101010 How philosophy created the binary code
🔍 Carl Jung looking into our deepest fears

🙈🙊🙉 Very intersectional monkeys

Let’s go!

1 unexpected intersection

How philosophy created the binary code:

Claude E. Shannon, the creator of transmitting informations with 0s and 1s, took a philosophy class at the University of michigan to fulfill an arts requirement.

In that class, Shannon learned about how Logician George Boole used 0 to indicate false statements and 1 to indicate true statements (learn more about Boolean algebra here). This way, statements can be solved like math equations.

Interesting, but not wildly applicable to daily life.

Yet.

Years later, Shannon interned at Bell Labs. Thinking about optimizing telephone call routing (if you are too young to know what this means, see here), he remembered Boole's elegant 0 and 1 approach.

Shannon realized 0s and 1s can be used to encode and transfer any type of data (binary code basics here) and created the binary code that underpin modern computing.

In Shannon's own words, he achieved nothing spectacular.

"It just happened that no one else was familiar with both those fields at the same time."

- Claude E. Shannon, Father of Information Theory

1 Paradox


“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves". - Carl Jung


Which leads to:

1 Visual Zettelkasten

🙈
VICE 🙉 VIRTUE
🙊


VICE in Western (?) cultures:
🙈See no evil
🙉 Hear no evil
🙊 Speak no evil

as a sarcastic remark towards those who ignore wrong doing.


VIRTUE in Confucian / Buddhist culture:

🙈 見ざる / 非礼勿視
🙉 聞かざる / 非礼勿聴
🙊 言わざる / 非礼勿言

as a maxim to remove oneself from negative influences.

The three monkeys are at the intersection of right and wrong.


Have a great week!

Vicky

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How philosophy created the binary code

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Adi Verma
Writes The Freedom Writer
Jul 3, 2022Liked by Vicky Zhao

An interesting intersection Vicky! I dunno how you find such observations 😅

Also, great quote. Strongly resonate with it.

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1 reply by Vicky Zhao
Bill Jennings
Writes Now it's all starting to make s…
Feb 11

Vicky, regarding the monkeys, we must always remember the fourth, Sezaru, who symbolizes Do No Evil.

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