this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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Top notch science journalism there.
And, if the top levels of the BBC weren't staffed with time-serving Conservative Party appointees who spend all their time interfering in politics, they could get their journalists to fact-check their articles by asking someone who knows what the fuck they're talking about.
So what do bits represent then, if not ones and zeros?
A bit isn't represented by a one or a zero, that's nonsense. A bit can take the state of a one or a zero and is represented in various ways in digital circuitry.
The states represent binary numbers, not the other way around.
https://www.britannica.com/technology/bit-communications
A bit is a binary digit. That's what "bit" is an abbreviation for. That is, it's either a 1 or a 0. It's a logical thing, not a physical thing. It's a unit of information.
The embodiment of that bit is the physical state of a certain tiny, addressable chunk of silicon. And there could be any of several other embodiments: the position of toggle switches, chalk marks on a board, pits on a metallic surface in a DVD, voltage in a wire at a particular time. The particular embodiment is an engineering choice that is distinct from the information itself.