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I'm not sure that nature and logic are related in the way you imply. A different question: Is not the atomic indivisible of computing no more that a simple swi

• marginalia_nu 3y ago
  Logical thought is the lines of thought that consistently lets us predict nature. Without nature there would be no such thing as fact, and without fact, there can be no logic, since a proposition can't be true or false.
• breischl 3y ago
  >Is not the atomic indivisible of computing no more that a simple switch? A binary? It is for the dominant computing paradigm currently in use, but that isn't a universal truth. As I understand it, we use binary logic primarily because it's more tractable for humans to think about and work with, not because it's the only option or even the best option in all cases. For instance there are plenty of analog computers in history, which are in some ways more closely related to biological "computers". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
  • OkayPhysicist 3y ago
    To my understanding, the main advantage of digital over analog logic in computing was (and probably still is) its resistance to small errors. Nonlinear components like transistors and vacuum tubes aren't exactly the most consistent parts, and factors like ambient temperature can make even otherwise linear parts a little wonky. The "on/off" paradigm gives you a lot of tolerance of deviations from the ideal. Storage is also a big factor: it's really hard to store analog values, whereas on/off is approximately trivial.