Binary code has me confuzzled.

Hey, let's play a quick game. Are you ready? Okay. Look around at your surroundings and choose an object. No, don’t worry, it’s not a problem if I know what your object of choice is.

Now, I want you to take a good look at it. Done? Great. Now close your eyes and list out everything that went into making that object (please remember to open your eyes when you’re done...or else, we might have a slight problem 😅). If you are done listing them out, let’s go on.

For sake of convenience, I picked out an object too; a diary. And my list goes: 

1. Paper 

2. Rubber

3. Elastic

4. Plastic

5. Ink

6. Time

7. Energy

8. Hard work

Okay, so it’s not exactly a problem if you missed one or two things. But think about this; I just listed out eight things that went into making something as simple as a diary. If you choose something more complicated, like a food processor, that list gets bigger, right? So many components go into making the simplest of objects, and when you think about something like a television, or a helicopter, you would definitely have way more ingredients in the mix than you could count on your hands and toes.

Yet, one of the biggest inventions yet, one that completely rattled our lives, changed the way we work, live, think, and act, and made us what we are today, does not follow that rule. It was, in reality, built on just two components. The virtual world as we know it started off with binary code, right?

It’s so hard to think of the virtual world as just two components: 0s and 1s. Of course, it was written in computer languages, but computer languages stemmed from binary code. So in a way, it came from binary itself. But the virtual world is one where we can do virtually anything (pun totally intended)! And I mean anything. You can buy groceries, turn your lights on with a clap, you can communicate with a bot (Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant). Your light switches can be controlled with smart-switches, your doors can be unlocked with smart-latches, your account could be hacked, you can embezzle, cheat, steal, stalk, and cyberbully. It is a great platform, vast, diverse, and full of surprises. You can find answers to any queries, on any topic, and have the ability to communicate with people not only with applications like hangouts and WhatsApp, but find more people who think like you via Blogger or WordPress, or build your own website. 

How was this whole new third world built with just on and off? How did someone get 1 and 0 to behave in exact order, collaborate and work together, and produce an end result so perfect yet so imperfect that it brought about a whole new kind of crime, at the very least...?

This isn’t exactly an article, it is more like a brief narration of my thoughts. Binary code seems, and at first glance, feels, so uncomplicated and simplistic, what with the idea of just two elements, but it is so complex.  

Feel free to leave your thoughts on this in the comment section; that is, after all, why it is there, apart from enabling you guys to tell me how awesome you found this particular post (I’m just kidding, but I hope you did). 

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I’ll see you guys next time!