When the first machines capable of performing only calculations were invented, they became known as computers, because the word computer originally meant “that which computes.” Over time, thanks to extensive research and development by engineers and computer scientists, these machines evolved to process any type of data, as long as it could be represented as binary electrical signals (0 and 1). With this evolution, the word “computer” has broadened in meaning, since these machines now do much more than calculate — they process all kinds of data. In that sense, a more fitting name might be “data processor.”

Although a computer may appear to manipulate words, images, sounds, or even entire virtual worlds, at the deepest level it processes only one thing: binary information. Everything that enters or leaves a computer — from a simple key press to a high-definition video — is ultimately translated into long sequences of zeros and ones. These binary digits, or bits, are the fundamental language of the machine.

From this minimal alphabet, computers are capable of representing many different kinds of data. Numbers, for example, may appear in human languages as integers, decimals, or scientific notation, but inside the machine they are stored as fixed patterns of bits, interpreted by the processor’s arithmetic logic unit. Text is equally numerical: every character, from the letter “A” to a symbol like “%”, corresponds to a code defined by standards such as ASCII or Unicode. Images follow the same principle. A picture is nothing more than a grid of pixels, each pixel represented by numerical values describing color and brightness. Audio is processed as thousands of numerical samples per second, describing how a sound wave varies over time. Videos combine both: sequences of frames plus a soundtrack, all encoded as numbers.

What appears diverse to humans becomes uniform to the machine. Whether it is performing a mathematical calculation, analyzing a photograph, or transmitting a message across the internet, the computer deals with everything as structured numerical data. Higher-level abstractions — strings, lists, objects, or entire files — are conveniences created for us. Internally, the computer only manipulates electrical states that correspond to bits, arranging and transforming them according to precise logical rules.

Understanding this principle is essential because it reveals both the power and the simplicity of computation. A computer is not intelligent by itself; it is a system capable of recognizing patterns of bits, applying operations to them, and producing new patterns in response. Yet, from this simple foundation, emerges the extraordinary versatility that defines modern technology: digital art, social networks, artificial intelligence, scientific simulations, and almost everything we experience through a screen.

Types of data that a computer can process:

• Numerical data
  • Integers
    • -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3
    • Used for counting, array indices, records, addresses.
  • Floating-point numbers
    • 3.14, -0.001, 2.71828
    • They represent values ​​with decimal places, physical measurements, and scientific calculations.
• Logical/Boolean Data
  • They represent only two possibilities:
    • True / False or 1 / 0
    • Used in conditions, decisions, comparisons, and control logic.
• Textual Data (characters and strings)
  • Individual characters (char)
    • Represented via tables such as ASCII or Unicode.
  • Character sequences (strings)
    • Full text: words, phrases and documents. Note: text is converted into numbers (character codes), and only then does it become bits.
• Image Data
  • Includes photos, drawings, pixels, colors, transparency. The computer processes images converted into:
    • A matrix of pixels
    • Each pixel represented by numerical values ​​(RGB, RGBA, etc.)
• Audio Data
  • Sound is converted into:
    • Numerical samples (e.g., 44100 per second), each sample representing the intensity of the sound.
    • These are analog signals transformed into digital values.
• Video Data
  • A video is nothing more than:
    • Image sequences (frames)
    • Synchronized audio
    • Metadata
      • It is information that describes, defines, or provides context to other data, allowing systems, databases, APIs, and applications to understand, organize, and manipulate that data efficiently.
• Structured / Complex Data
  • These are compositions of the basic types:
    • Lists
    • Arrays
    • Objects
    • Records
    • JSON and XML files
    • Databases
• Network Data / Communication
  • Packages containing:
    • Headers
    • Addresses
    • Content

In short: everything becomes bits. Data types are infinitely diverse, but they are all represented by binary numbers.

• The hardware only handles:
  • additions
  • subtractions
  • comparisons
  • logical operations
• And the software creates layers of abstraction that transform bits into:
  • Text
  • Image
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Complex structures
  • Artificial intelligence

A Brief History of Computing

The history of computing is the history of humanity’s attempt to extend its own intellectual abilities. Long before the invention of modern machines, people created tools to aid calculation: the abacus, used for thousands of years, allowed faster arithmetic; centuries later, mechanical devices such as Pascal’s calculator and Leibniz’s stepped reckoner automated addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These early machines were limited, but they revealed an important idea: that mechanical processes could imitate mental ones.

A major conceptual leap occurred in the 19th century with Charles Babbage’s designs for the Analytical Engine. Although never completed, it introduced the foundations of modern computing: a memory to store numbers, a processor to manipulate them, and a system of punched cards to supply instructions. The Analytical Engine was not merely a calculator — it was a programmable machine. Ada Lovelace, who wrote detailed notes about the device, is often considered the first computer programmer, recognizing that such a machine could operate not only on numbers but on any symbol representable in a formal system.

The 20th century transformed these theoretical ideas into practical technology. During World War II, machines such as the British Colossus and the American ENIAC marked the arrival of electronic computing. They replaced gears and levers with vacuum tubes, enabling calculations thousands of times faster than their mechanical predecessors. Still enormous and fragile, these early computers were specialized instruments built for military or scientific purposes.

The invention of the transistor in 1947, followed by the integrated circuit in 1958, changed everything. Computers became smaller, faster, cheaper, and far more reliable. What once filled entire rooms could now fit on desks, and eventually in pockets. By the 1970s and 1980s, personal computers began to appear in homes and schools, making digital technology accessible to ordinary people for the first time.

The final decades of the century and the beginning of the next brought two revolutions: the rise of the internet and the emergence of powerful mobile devices. Information that was once isolated on individual machines flowed freely across global networks. Smartphones placed computing and communication tools into billions of hands, reshaping everyday life. Computing is no longer a specialized activity — it has become an invisible infrastructure that supports modern society.

From ancient counting tools to quantum processors, the history of computing shows a steady movement toward abstraction, automation, and universality. Each generation of machines expands what is possible, not by replacing human thought, but by extending it.

Why Binary?

At first glance, it may seem arbitrary that computers rely on binary — a system built from only two symbols, 0 and 1. After all, humans are accustomed to richer alphabets: the ten digits of the decimal system, the letters of written language, and countless symbols used in mathematics and art. Yet binary is not a limitation; it is a fundamental strength of digital technology. Computers use binary not because it is simple for us, but because it is ideal for machines.

The physical world inside a computer is governed by electricity. Electronic circuits must distinguish between different states to represent information, and the most reliable way to do this is by recognizing only two: a high voltage or a low voltage, a closed circuit or an open one. With just two clearly separated states, the chances of misinterpretation caused by noise, heat, or interference are drastically reduced. In this environment, binary emerges as the safest and most stable foundation for storing and manipulating information.

But binary is more than an engineering convenience. It is deeply connected to the logic of computation itself. Every operation performed by a computer — every comparison, every decision, every arithmetic step — can be expressed using Boolean logic, a mathematical system built on true and false values. Binary digits map perfectly onto this logic, allowing circuits to be designed as physical embodiments of mathematical rules. Complex programs, no matter how sophisticated, are ultimately vast combinations of simple logical operations.

Binary also enables universality. With only two symbols, any kind of data can be encoded: numbers, letters, colors, sound waves, and even entire virtual worlds. What seems diverse to us becomes uniform to a machine, because binary serves as a common language that bridges the gap between abstract ideas and physical signals. Once information is represented in bits, it can be transformed, stored, transmitted, and combined in endlessly flexible ways.

In essence, computers use binary because it aligns perfectly with both the physics of electronics and the mathematics of logic. It is the simplest possible foundation that can support the vast complexity of modern computation. From a pair of symbols — 0 and 1 — emerges the entire digital universe.