Herb Chong wrote:
hydraulic engineering. i had this explained to me by an IBM design engineer who designed the externals of computer monitors. it was a bunch of mechanical engineers who designed the symbols in the late 60's/early 70's. the thought of ubiquitous computers and people who understood them was not on their minds. binary 0 and 1 definitely for on and off was not commonplace knowledge then and still isn't.
I seriously doubt that. 0 and 1 have their roots in math, far before computers or hydraulics. 0 times something is nothing, 1 times something is something. Algebra, Boolean math, etc. I can't think of anything more universal for on/off.
Even non-latinic folks tend to understand/use 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9.
-R
