An encoding system will be most useful and decodable if it is designed for the medium on which it is encoded  and when that medium is designed to work efficiently with a specific decoding device. A medium has longevity if the conditions under which it is stored are unlikely to degrade the medium. How long would clay survive exposed to the humidity of a temperate climate?

Using binary encoding facilitates reading the information if the decoder can only process single bits at a time in a serial fashion. If the decoder is a more sophisticated pattern-recognition device, then converting the letter ‘A’ to 0000000001000001 is inefficient.

–
Robert Delius Royar
Department of English
Morehead State University