It is not always easy to categorize objects as either digital or non-digital. Take a clay pill of 3,400 B.C.: unchangeable, solid, inimitable. A printed book can be reproduced, though the letters are physically on paper. Think now of a PDF or a streaming video, these are digital since the data are encoded in discrete, reproducible units.
Digital objects can be copied, distributed and manipulated without becoming degraded, whereas analog objects have a bit of originality and contextual flavor. As an example, it is impossible to copy a clay tablet to the letter, it is easy and perfect to copy a PDF. This difference is important in the analysis of history and contemporary technology due to alterations in the process of passing knowledge and culture.
Comparing objects over time, I noticed that the process of classifying information digitally is not merely technical but the structure of information, how it is represented, and made available. Digital systems change access and preservation, as well as remote some qualities of the original object, establishing new possibilities and constraints.
Connection to Objective: This post achieves this purpose by categorizing historical and contemporary objects into digital versus non-digital by explaining the classification in terms of organization, duplicability, and availability.