Meaning of ones and zeroes | Babel Free

Definitions

Binary code; on and off bits.

informal, plural, plural-only

Examples

“The incoming signals were broken down into digital code—ones and zeroes—by a relatively simple computer and downlinked to Fort Huachuca, where another computer of vastly greater power examined the bits of raw information and tried to make sense of them.”

“The so-called higher level programming languages, like the various dialects of BASIC and PASCAL familiar to students in the 1980s, greatly simplified the business of programming, since it is no longer necessary—at least for certain purposes—to do what is now called "machine language programming," or what in earlier days was programming, i.e., employing the ones and zeroes now frequently viewed as rather tedious and theoretical [...]”

“Hiro Protagonist [in Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson] must win, one might say, on both Surf and Turf against the wonderfully evil Evangelist Minister R. Bob Riff and his allies, both in the world of violence, swordplay, and aircraft carriers and in the world of ones and zeros.”

“Now one must also: [...] be able to discern or possess a device that is able to discern the ones and zeroes on the storage medium, [...]”

“But suppose there is a special and universal and innate language for thinking. Suppose, in particular, that just as computers have a language of ones and zeroes that underlies all of their programs and applications, there is an equally fundamental language shared by all humans: a language of thought (lot) [...].”

“You once said that the "ones and zeros" in the world's computers were demons that could trick the human race into losing all its history.”

“If you are a developer or an architect, you are one for a good reason: Your magic and craft is turning ones and zeros into a solution that makes life and work better.”

“Neo has been hacking since he was in elementary school. He is more at ease with ones and zeros than his own language.”

“If the movie [Ralph Breaks the Internet] never falls into a feedback loop, credit should probably go to [John C.] Reilly and especially [Sarah] Silverman, who bring human vulnerability to little bits of ultra-branded ones and zeroes.”

CEFR level