The Digital Environment: Taking the Long View

3. About Bits

First, some fundamental properties concerning the performance of digital computational technologies.

• One can fit many separate streams of bits through the same space/channel that previously could carry only one analog stream.
• Bits can be error corrected more easily than can analog information.
• Bits can be modified and manipulated relatively easily.
• A bit is a bit is a bit: Bits don't care what kinds of information they represent.
• Moore's Law proposes that computer power and speed double every 18 months to two years. This is both good and bad for many folks along the pipeline.

Second, we can note that the economy of bits is driven by the medium in which the bits are arrayed, by the bit architecture, and by the constraints imposed by storage and delivery mediums.

• The size and functionality of chips change and evolve as do the mediums in which bits are arrayed.

Third, we must take note of the importance of delivery systems.

• "The Negroponte Carrier Switch" originally said: That which is now in/on the ground will take to the air. That which is now in the air, will soon be found in/on the ground.
  But, of course, these could flip again.
• In terms of "bit radiation and time":Only live events need real time display. All other events will be received, stored, culled, reorganized, redisplayed.
• The "winner(s)" of the pipe wars will play an important role in the shape of new media

Want to learn more?
Negroponte, Being Digital