It was far back in 1794 when Santa asked his wife Christmas Eve about ideas for gifts to Mankind. And Eve said "Mathematics must be fun. Have you ever thougt of that genious Niclas Edelcrantz in Stockholm who as scientist, poet, theatre director and industrialist has found a place close to the king. And have you thougt of all those people around the world who are trying to telegraph messages over long distances with help of flags, semaphores and all sorts of curious constructions. Why not give Edelcrantz the idea that binary mathematics could be combined with the digital insight that a switch that has only two precise places, on or off, has less chances to be misunderstood than any other means giving more opportunities."

"You mean that your speech should be yes, yes or no, no?", Santa said. 
But it took some time for him to be convinced by Eve that all information could be translated into binary codes consisting of just the numbers 1 and 0.

Later Santa got a drawing from Eve and one night put it under Edelcrantz´ pillow. Several optical telegraph lines were built up in Sweden after Edelcrantz´directions and were in use for more than a half century. The digital system was comparatively fast compared to other optical telegraph systems as it could deliver 1024 different signs and thus give lots of information with little handwork. 40000 words and expressions only needed two signs to be signalled. And up to 16 signs could be sent around 30 kilometers per minute. That is almost twice the speed of sound.

"But do you think that this system will have a future?" Santa asked. And Eve replied:"More than you can believe. In fifty years, people will telegraph through electric cables and in houndred years, they will learn how to send messages wireless through the air. But in 150 years people know how to build mashines that can automatically translate information into binary codes and reverse. And in 200 years you will have, instead of telegraph lines, a wireless worldwide web spreading binary digits at the speed of light. You will be able to send texts, pictures and sounds from any place and pic it up at any other place. Believe me or not."