Weaving: a thought about binary systems.

[weaver2]

Weaving is a binary system; a warp thread is either in use or not in a design; there are only two choice up or down. In 1804 Jacquard invented an "apparatus" that attached to the top of a loom to pull up the warp threads needed for one line of weaving in a complex design. His "apparatus"used punch cards to accomplish this. You can see them sewn together feeding into the Jacquard apparatus sitting on the top of the loom.



Several people noted that Jacquard's punch card system could be used in solving math problems. And inventors were off and running. Weaving led to computers. Who knew.

When the finished woven product is taken off of the loom the design the weaver wanted is on one side of the fabric and the other side of the fabric shows the exact opposite of that design.



Here's the thought: computers are a binary system exactly like weaving.... on/off. So there's an opposite..... off/on. Do Roombas put dirt on the carpet if the opposite of their program is installed? What does a lighting display for an exhibition look like if the opposite of the lighting program is used. What is the opposite of software designed to create a manufactured product. What about the opposite to the software for using brain signals to move artificial limbs. More sophisticated programs involving human brains are still just binaries and all binary systems have an opposite.

 

[Allan]

Here's the thought: computers are a binary system exactly like weaving.... on/off.

Quantum computers are not a binary system. A qubit can exist in both an on and off position, or an infinite number of states (superposition) at the same time.

 

[weaver2]

Quantum computers are not a binary system. A qubit can exist in both an on and off position, or an infinite number of states (superposition) at the same time.

I didn't know. I can't even imagine something that is both on and off.

 

[soylentgreen]

Quantum computers are not a binary system. A qubit can exist in both an on and off position, or an infinite number of states (superposition) at the same time.

Isn't it kind of splitting hairs. Quantum still uses a binary system of ones and zeros it's just that it can represent a zero, a one, or both simultaneously.