🔍 The First Step to Understanding How Computers Talk!

If you want to understand how computers talk, you first need to understand how people talked using machines—without using words or voices.

The amazing thing is:
People figured out binary before computers did.

Let’s build it step by step.

👣 Step 1: A Signal That Stands for Something

Imagine you’re stuck on an island. You want to send a message to a ship far away.

You don’t have a phone, but you do have a flashlight.

Let’s say:

• One short blink means YES

• Two short blinks mean NO

You’ve just made a 2-symbol code. That’s powerful. That’s the beginning of binary.

🔁 Step 2: Add Timing

But you want to say more than “yes” or “no.” So you add timing.

• One short blink = A

• Two short blinks = B

• Three short blinks = C
  …and so on.

Suddenly, your flashlight can “talk”! You’re sending letters using just light.

That’s how Morse code was born.

💬 Step 3: Morse Code

Morse code is one of the most famous early codes. It uses:

• Dots (short signals)

• Dashes (long signals)

Each letter is made of dots and dashes:

• A = dot-dash

• B = dash-dot-dot-dot

• C = dash-dot-dash-dot

So you could tap, flash, or beep these signals—and people would understand.

It was used in war, on ships, and by railways.

People could now send full messages across hundreds of miles using wires, lights, or sound.

⚡️ Step 4: Wires and Telegraphs

Now comes the real magic: electricity.

People realized that a button could send electrical pulses down a wire. These pulses could be short or long—just like dots and dashes.

And so, the telegraph was born.

Someone presses a key → it sends a pulse → a machine at the other end makes a “click.” The person listens and writes it down.

It’s fast. It’s long-distance. It’s binary.

Sound familiar? That’s how your computer works too—but millions of times faster.

🔄 Step 5: Why Binary Is Genius

The power of codes like Morse and Telegraph is this:

👉 They turn ideas into yes/no signals.
That’s the entire idea behind computer language.
Computers don’t understand letters. But they understand patterns:

• ON/OFF

• 1/0

• TRUE/FALSE

That’s binary. And that’s how we got closer to machines that could “think.”

➡️ Next: You’ll see how this led to real computers using switches and electricity to remember and decide things.