Layers of Abstractions

Code often compiles to an intermediate language. Intermediate languages are generally compiled into machine-language. Machine-language is really just bits. Bits are really just groups of electric, magnetic, reflective, mechanical, or similar potentials.

An integer isn't really an integer except in our heads. It's just some electrical potentials marching around through microscopic semiconductors.

We imagine that a certain combination of voltages spread across some data lines mean "seven" and that the absence of those voltages plus some voltage on an adjacent line means "eight". More precisely, we assign those meanings.