At its core, being digital means that information—whether it’s sound, pictures, videos, or even instructions for a machine—is represented by numbers, specifically 0s and 1s (binary code). This is different from analog systems, which use continuous signals (like sound waves or the needle on a record player).

Being digital allows machines to be incredibly fast and precise, which is why we can store, process, and share vast amounts of information easily, like photos, texts, or videos across the internet. Digital systems have transformed the way we communicate, learn, and even entertain ourselves.

Recently, in my Core 456 class, we discussed the differences between digital and analog systems from when they were first introduced to the technological world, and even thousands of years ago. When thinking of the word “digital,” most people tend to focus on technological aspects like computers, phones, cars, machines, etc. However, the terms “digital” and “analog” carry more meaning than we often realize. When we think of digital, we think of 1’s and 0’s—discrete values that we can easily distinguish and assign meaning to. Now, compare this to analog. How many numbers could exist between 0 and 1? 1.5? 1.75? 1.333333333? 1.34? 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419? There are actually an infinite number of values between 0 and 1, making it difficult to differentiate analog signals.

Going back to when the Egyptians used hieroglyphics to record their history, those symbols eventually evolved into the alphabet letters we know today. The evolving alphabet, as seen in the image to the right, has gone through many transitions to become what we now recognize as the alphabet. But how does this relate to analog vs. digital? It has to do with optical character recognition (OCR), a technology that interprets written characters. While ABC can be easily interpreted like digital signals, fancy fonts like ãβ€ pose challenges for computers, representing an analog-like complexity. Humans can often identify such characters efficiently, while computers struggle to get the right letters. This is why CAPTCHA tests are so common online, to verify whether the user is human or a machine.

A modern example of digital and analog in our technological world occurred on June 12, 2009, when the United States enacted the Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005. This mandated that 99% of the United States switch from analog to digital TV signals, with some exceptions. This transition helped free up valuable portions of the broadcast spectrum, which could then be used for advanced wireless services and public safety services. The large 20-30 foot antennas came down, replaced by smaller 1-2 foot dishes. The image to the right shows the size comparison. Why were smaller dishes needed to replace the large analog ones? The reason is that analog systems had much larger signal “waves,” and a lot of noise was intercepted by these systems. To combat this, geostationary satellites were placed around the equator, allowing people 24/7 access. These satellites had to send large amounts of power signals to overcome the noise from other signals.