"Master, why are we always using the (binary) pair: X/not-X, and not the pair: X/Y ?"
"Why, Ling, X and Y have nothing in common. On the other hand 'X' and 'Everything except X' both have the X in common. It may look like mere word-play, but I assure you that it is not. What do you like best: travel or blue ?"
"I cannot say."
"But in all sorts of situations you can easely choose between either travel or not travel, either blue or not blue. Yet, as Wells admirably shows, we must be careful with the tricks our subconscious could play. Not blue, we are tempted to think, would be some other colour, while e.g. honesty or yesterday or thunder also belong to the class 'Not blue' (First and Last Things ). But think of the binary coding. X, could be a simple idea consisting of not more than say, 1000 bits of +/-, and to negativate it (Not-X), would only mean some + changed into a - (the one for I, or for exist, for like etc. ). The process of changing X into Y, would mean change all 1000 bits if not very many more."