How do computers KNOW what zeros and ones actually mean?

Question

Ok, so I know that the alphabet of computers consists of only two symbols, or states: zero and one.

I also seem to understand how computers count beyond one even though they don’t have symbols for anything above one.

What I do NOT understand is how a computer knows* that a particular string of ones and zeros refers to a number, or a letter, or a pixel, or an RGB color, and all the other types of data that computers are able to render.

*EDIT: A lot of you guys hang up on the word “know”, emphasing that a computer does not know anything. Of course, I do not attribute any real awareness or understanding to a computer. I’m using the verb “know” only figuratively, folks ;).

I think that somewhere under the hood there must be a physical element–like a table, a maze, a system of levers, a punchcard, etc.–that breaks up the single, continuous stream of ones and zeros into rivulets and routes them into–for lack of a better word–different tunnels? One for letters, another for numbers, yet another for pixels, and so on?

I can’t make do with just the information that computers speak in ones and zeros because it’s like dumbing down the process human communication to the mere fact of relying on an alphabet.

In: 264

Answer 1

Context is how they know it. This is why every file has a format. Mp3, pdf, etc etc. These formats essentially act like a map that the computer has a legend on how to read and decipher. So The operating system can tell that if it sees an mp3 file. Then it should start and end with a certain pattern and everything else between that pattern should be set up in a way where like every set of like 8 1s and 0s plays a certain sound. So it reads those numbers. Compares it to the legend it is given. Then sends the signals to the speakers to play the sound before moving onto the next set of 0s and 1s.

This context is used for everything really. Even before the operating system starts there is a BIOS that essentially boots up the OS program. The makers of the bios and OS worked together so the computer executes the OS startup properly.