I Am Analog, Hear Me Roar

Quote of the day:
“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.”
--W.H. Auden

The digital revolution has brought about easy access to just about any information. It has also allowed more and more text, audio and video to be carried much faster, and in progressively smaller and smaller packages.

But no matter how deeply we immerse ourselves in the digital universe, we still have to deal with one stubbornly analog element: ourselves. Until the day we can channel rapid electronic switching impulses (i.e., digital signals) directly into our brains. Shades of The Matrix.

Our fingers on computer keyboards and mice--and on our TV remote--are analog. Our ears listening to music and our eyes watching video are both analog. Thus transmission of audio, video or text will by necessity involve translation (or transduction) from analog into digital at the source, and from digital to analog at the user end.

What about a movie, which is essentially individually-flashing pictures done rapidly enough that our brains are fooled into thinking there’s motion? Or a CD, which brings music to us in the form of 44,000 on-off switches a second?

More tomorrow.