Excidium Planetis wrote:"Such yes/no data can be expressed in numerical form, as you just did in your example by assigning yes and no the values of one and zero, and therefore is a digital device."
Can be. Does not mean it is. "Yesyesyesyesyes" is not the same as "enthusiastic 11111" or "fabulous 5". How would you digitally express "maybe yes" and "maybe not"?
"Quantum computers are digital. Quantum computers have only three possible values for each qubit: 1, 0, or a superposition of the two states. There is no continuously variable information, so numerical values can be assigned."
Actually, that's tridigital, not just digital. (OOC: And arguing about what quantum computers can and can't do is pretty much a moot point - what you're describing is what RL computer science is trying to do, not what an actual quantum computer might be able to do. We don't know, because we don't yet have one IRL. Heck, it might use flavours instead.)
"but as long as the data can be expressed in numerical form, then it is a digital device."
That's just cheating. Anything can be expressed in numerical form if you have specifically designed a system to do it. In fact, by your definition you and I, and all living beings are digital devices, since our parts, our data can be expressed in numerical form.
Also GAR #354 might conflict with your definition. You might want to make your definition read "non-sapient artificial equipment".
OOC: Not all the links are actually relevant, I'm just in a wacky mood due to lack of sleep and numbers seem silly.