Analog | Digital

A generations-old debate still echoes in the current media and technological zeitgeist: which is better? Analog, or Digital? 

As far back as the birth of early tube-driven computers that usurped the mechanical arithmetic machines and analog devices of old, society has been asking “what is the best way to model reality”?

Analog technology relies on direct physical representations of the phenomena it represents. Sound waves transform into electrical waves transform into mechanical vibrations transform into physical grooves on a platter of vinyl. The process is later reversed, and music has been transported through time and space using the fundamental laws of physics.

Digital technology relies on the sampling of reality into discrete chunks which are then stored and represented by numbers, IE “digits”. Once captured in this form, we have a near infinite ability to analyze, modulate, and manipulate this data in whatever way we deem fit. The sheer efficiency and power of the digital medium is why it has become prolific in modern society.

Where does analog fit in a rapidly progressing technological society? When does digital transcend its discrete numerical representation and better model the universe than any analog means could?