3 ms·
> mechanical watches are among the very finest fossils of the pre-digital age Clocks have discrete ticks. They are digital devices. Even a base-60 second hand
by nayuki 2y ago
> mechanical watches are among the very finest fossils of the pre-digital age
Clocks have discrete ticks. They are digital devices. Even a base-60 second hand is digital because the number of states is finite.
Mechanical and digital are not mutually exclusive concepts. For example, "The analytical engine was a proposed digital mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_engine
Going further, I could argue that the digital age is very old. Humans who wrote numbers for accounting purposes were engaging in a digital activity; only the numbers matter, not the medium they were written on or the exact handwriting style of the scribe who wrote those numbers. DNA is a form of digital data conveyed through a sequence of 4 possible symbols, and DNA predates humans by billions of years.
The pedantic phrase substitution for "pre-digital age" would be something like "age before widespread digital electronic computers on solid-state microchips" (thus differentiating from analog electronic computers and vacuum tubes).
- tokai 2y agoDigital has three meanings; having to do with fingers and toes. Having to do with something discrete. And having to do with computers, with electronic as synonym. You are arguing from the second definition while the quote is of the third definition.
- nayuki 2y ago> And having to do with computers, with electronic as synonym. Computers do not have to be electronic. Counterexamples: Mechanical calculators, LEGO logic gates, hydraulic logic valves, electrical (not electronic) relays. Heck, even human meatbags were called "computers" back in the day.
- theamk 2y agoTechnically correct, but you are being pedantic. It was pretty clear to me that the 3rd sense of "digital" pertains to modern-ish electronic digital computers. I would not call mechanical calculator, human or hydraulic logic "digital computer". (Relay computer is on the fence)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- amscanne 2y agoYou’re being needlessly pedantic. Obviously, “computers” also has varied meanings. In this case, it is referring to systems built with discrete electronics and ICs. That is, its operation is based almost entirely on the manipulation of electrons and their associated fields. Watches are nice because it’s much less common to have such tiny precise physical machines anymore, since so many of these use cases have been replaced by “computers”.
- gweinberg 2y agoIt would be absurd to say an analog electronic computer was digital.
- emchammer 2y agoGP wrote that a base-60 second hand is digital, but the second hand on a Rolex ticks at 5 steps IIRC. It is not clear to me that the natural numbers would exist at all if human beings did not.
- gweinberg 2y agoYou're missing the meaning where the display uses the symbols we call digits (rather than hands). I don;t think most people would call an electronic watch "digital" if the display was hands, even if the "hands" are actually an lcd display.
- fennecbutt 2y ago>Clocks have discrete ticks. Not always, look at Seiko's spring drive