Jim Menegay  wrote:

> john_SPAM{at}wilkins.id.au (John Wilkins) wrote:
> > All data storage in the real world is analogue. 
> 
> Ah! Reductionism again.  But Wolfram and Fredkin might disagree
> as to whether the ultimate reduction is to analog or digital.
> 
> In general, I think that it is a bad idea to think of either
> analog or digital as the ultimate truth about the "real world".
> We don't know enough about reality to make such judgements.
> All we have to work with are models of reality.  Analog and
> digital are two such models.  Neither lives in the "real world".
> Both are abstract conceptual entities.
> 
> > The only difference
> > between analogue and digital is the fidelty of replication. 
> 
> Disagree.  See below.
> 
> > I think that any evolutionary process is going to maximise 
> > the fidelity to the point where further improvements would 
> > be too costly, no matter whether it is cultural, biological 
> > or technological. 
> 
> Agreed.
> 
> > I completely agree with Tim, and
> > would say that "digital" is, in the real (as opposed to 
> > abstract) world, a name for "very-high-fidelity reproduction" 
> > over analogue substrates.  That digital media use thresholds 
> > to ensure that fidelity is secondary.
> 
> First, I don't think that Tim said that.  Second, I don't think

No, I added that to what Tim said.

> that thresholding per se is the whole distinction.  Digital
> involves a "force" that pushes signals that drift close to the
> threshold back to nominal values.  Analog tries to avoid such
> "distortions" of the received signal.

I don't follow this. Thresholding is how an analog signal can become a
digital one (as in FM v AM). The "trying" here is done by the sender and
receiver, and is imposed, so to speak, on the analogue signal. What that
"force" can be I have simply no idea. But I am not an engineer so I
would appreciate the education you can give me in making this clear.
> 
> If you Aussies are familiar with the noble sport of bowling,
> you may appreciate this analogy.  The skilled bowler aims his
> ball down the lanes using analog information.  The medium, (the
> lane) is as flat as possible, to avoid distorting the bowler's
> signal.  However, an unskilled bowler is producing digital
> information.  The overwhelming majority of his balls end up in 
> the "gutter", and the gutters provide forces such that a variety
> of inputs will mostly result in one of two possible outputs.
> 
> The ideal digital bowling lane would slope toward the gutters
> from the center (the threshold).  And it is this "basin of 
> attraction" feature in the dynamics that distinguishes digital
> from analog.

The point and logic of this example escape me entirely, I'm afraid. And
I do bowl. Some of my bowling makes it to the end of the lane, and I
even get a strike occasionally. But I was unaware of using digital
technology or techniques to do so - it was all analogue...
-- 
John S Wilkins PhD - www.wilkins.id.au
  a little emptier, a little spent
  as always by that quiver in the self,
  subjugated, yes, and obedient.  -- Seamus Heaney
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