Since this isn't a research-level question (seeing as I am not in a graduate program) I decided to plop on over here from the other CS Q&A site.
Why do we use binary to encode information in bits?
I have some programming and hardware experience, and I know that 1 and 0 are the off and on of a lightbulb, etc. But modern lights also have a dimmer.
Why do we still use 1 and 0 when we could use frequency or percentage value of energy transferred to further compact a message in machine language?
Wouldn't it be quicker for a CPU or memory to calculate and process something if it gets the information quicker?
Basically, is it possible? And if so...Does this idea now have any copyright on it? :)
If it isn't, I would like to know why definitively if that could be explained. Thanks :)