Binaries

=Binaries=



In critical theory, a **binary opposition** (also **binary system**) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning In the mid-20th century, two major European academic thinkers, Claude Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes, had the important insight that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as they called it 'binary opposite'. They realised that words merely act as symbols for society's ideas and that the meaning of words, therefore, was a relationship rather than a fixed thing: a relationship between opposing ideas.

For example, our understanding of the word 'coward' surely depends on the difference between that word and its opposing idea, that of a 'hero' (and to complicate matters further, a moment's thought should alert you to the fact that interpreting words such as 'hero' and 'coward' is itself much more to do with what our society or culture attributes to such words than any meaning the words themselves might actually contain). Other oppositions that should help you understand the idea are the youth/age binary, the masculinity/femininity, the good/evil binary, and so on. Barthes and Levi-Strauss noticed another important feature of these 'binary opposites': that one side of the binary pair is always seen by a particular society or culture as more valued over the other.

Binary system is a way of representing text or computer processor instructions by the use of the binary number system's two-binary digits 0 and 1. This is accomplished by assigning a bit string to each particular symbol or instruction. For example, A binary string of eight digits (bits) can represent any of 256 possible values and can therefore correspond to a variety of different symbols, letters or instructions.

In computing and telecommunication, binary codes are used for any of a variety of methods of encoding data, such as character strings, into bit strings. Those methods may be fixed-width or variable-width. In a fixed-width binary code, each letter, digit, or other character, is represented by a bit string of the same length; that bit string, interpreted as a binary number, is usually displayed in code tables in octal, decimal or hexadecimal notation. There are many character sets and many character encodings for them.

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- Definition
Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right. Binary opposition is an important concept of structuralism, which sees such distinctions as fundamental to all language and thought In structuralism, a binary opposition is seen as a fundamental organizer of human philosophy, culture, and language. In the community of philosopher and scholars, most believe that "unless a distinction can be made rigorous and precise it isn't really a distinction. To be precise binaries are the assumed or the factual opposite of a certain object, emotion or anything.

- Sub-Terms
Dichotomy Dichotomy is the splitting of a whole without any otherlapping parts. It is repeatedly divided and it is represented as a contrst bebetween the two things. It is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets) that are:
 * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and
 * mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts.

An example of a dichotomy is the partition of a scene into figure and ground – the letters are foreground or figure; the rest is the background

- Relationship To The Genre Of Science Fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least nonsupernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Science fiction criteria may include but is not limited to:
 * A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record.
 * A spatial setting or scenes in outer space (e.g., spaceship travel), on other worlds, or on subterranean earth.
 * Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots.
 * Technology that is futuristic (e.g., ray guns, teleportation machines, humanoid computers).
 * Scientific principles that are new or that contradict known laws of nature--for example, time travel, wormholes, or faster-than-light travel.
 * New and different political or social systems (e.g., a dystopia, or a post-apocalyptic situation where organized society has collapsed), although disagreement exists on whether this criterion identifies science fiction.
 * Paranormal abilities such as mind-reading, mind control, mental telepathy, telekinesis, and self-teleportation.

Binaries relate to the genre of science fiction because it is the basis for science fiction. The science fiction world is based upon contradictions and our imagination, without opposites in place we would be single minded nothing to think about.

- Links
27/06/11,[] 27/06/11,[] 29/06/11,[] 29/06/11,[] 30/06/11, []  30/06/11, [|www.englishbiz.co.uk/popups/opposition.htm]