Why do we write our ABCs? They’re just arbitrary shapes on a page….
Binary codes mean something because we decided that they do.
There are a few different standards that assign meaning to binary numbers. ASCII and Unicode are examples. They are created by people, who say “this binary number represents this letter (or symbol)”.
We did the same with Morse code:
A = .-
B= -…
C= -.-.
etc.
The actual assignment of these codes to letters is arbitrary. (Although there are reasons we might assign codes in certain ways, to make them easier to use.)
As to why binary? Computers work well with binary numbers. Either a lightbulb is on or it is off. Either a condition is true, or it is false. There are two options. Thus, binary.
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