A System of Two States

Imagine a scenario where we have to communicate with someone using the fewest possible symbols. A single symbol can without a doubt communicate one state, but what about the scenario when we want to communicate that the state doesn’t need to exist anymore? We need to be able to represent at least two states.

Binary system

A binary system is a system that uses only two symbols or states to represent information. Any two distinct symbols/states can be used for this purpose. For example:

• Up/Down
• Black/White
• Red/Green
• Apple/Orange
• True/False
• Open/Close
• On/Off

Such a system—relating to, composed of, or ...