The splitting of the bits

Gregory Alan Bolcer (gbolcer@gambetta.ICS.uci.edu)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 22:36:31 -0800


Harvey Blume discusses the implications of
moving from binary to discrete ala Intel's recent
press announcment about multi-level flash memory.
I have to admit, I've never read a geek who could write
so cleverly, present company excluded, of course.

Greg

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/digicult/dc9712.htm

During the first stage of the electronic revolution change came in
discrete installments. Sure, the first people exposed to the telephone
were susceptible to dissonance and disorientation; many heard ghosts
and demons jabbering out of the receivers, but as a rule people were
given some pause between inventions, some time to adjust. Phone, film,
phonograph, radio, all had a sort of clear, well bounded existence when
they arrived on the scene. A Moore's law of sorts applied to inventions.