Binary code The modern binary number system, the basis for binary code, was invented by Gottfried Leibniz in 1689 and appears in his article "Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire". The full title is translated into English as the "Explanation of the binary arithmetic", which uses only the characters 1 and 0, with some remarks on its usefulness, and on the light it throws on the ancient Chinese figures of Fu Xi." (1703). Leibniz's system uses 0 and 1, like the modern binary numeral system. Leibniz encountered the "I Ching" through French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet and noted with fascination how its hexagrams correspond to
Binary number positional notation. The residents of the island of Mangareva in French Polynesia were using a hybrid binary-decimal system before 1450. Slit drums with binary tones are used to encode messages across Africa and Asia. Sets of binary combinations similar to the I Ching have also been used in traditional African divination systems such as Ifá as well as in medieval Western geomancy. In the late 13th century Ramon Llull had the ambition to account for all wisdom in every branch of human knowledge of the time. For that purpose he developed a general method or ‘Ars generalis’ based on binary