[sdiy] Is everything digital?

[Glen]

At 11:49 AM 5/14/2005 , Paul Schreiber wrote:

>The prpoer statement is "Everything is quantized." Even "continuous analog" 
>voltages are quantized, albeit VERY small steps (like 10^-18 V). Even 
>temperatue 
>and time are quantized, because nuclear events on which they are based are 
>themselves quantized.
>
>Paul S.

My electronics education taught me that "digital" circuitry had a discrete
number of normal states (that is, ignoring any malfunction of the
equipment, etc). By far, the most common digital circuitry in use today is
binary digital circuitry. There should be no reason we couldn't
*theoretically* have digital circuitry with a billion possible voltage
states. I've personally seen trinary digital circuitry, and I'm sure that
other circuitry has been built with four or more discrete voltage levels. 

So, perhaps "digital" isn't a totally incorrect word? I would agree that
quantized is also a good term to use.

take care,
Glen