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As you know, instructions can be converted to more elementary forms. A program written in a high-level language can be converted to assembly code. Assembly
code can be converted to binary code. Does it make sense to convert data to more elementary forms? For example, here is data about a person; specifically, the name of a person: Alan Turing What would be a more elementary form of that data? Another example: here is data about a location; specifically, the latitude and longitude of Boston Logan airport: 42.3656° N, 71.0096° W What would be a more elementary form of that data? Truthfully, I can’t see how to convert data to a more elementary form. (But I am hoping that you do see how to do it and will show me.) This makes me wonder:
why is it that instructions can be converted to more elementary forms, but data cannot? Is data already in its most elementary form?
When we say that high-level instructions can be converted to a more elementary form, would it be correct to say that high-level instructions are a more
abstract form and they can be converted to a less abstract form? Is “abstraction” equal to “the ability to convert” (to a more elementary form)? Is abstraction a
property? Instructions possess the abstraction property, but data does not?
I am eager to hear your thoughts. /Roger |