The invention of the binary number system, on which computer technology is based, is attributed to the mathematician and philosopher of the early Enlightenment, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), although some mathematicians of the 17th century had already experimented with binary numbers, which Leibniz probably was not aware of. His intention was not initially focused on practical applications in everyday life. He aimed to demonstrate through his explanations that the use of the binary system could be beneficial in number theoretical considerations, as periodic patterns can be easily found in the binary notation of numbers. Only from his unpublished estate do we know that the first draft of a calculating machine using the binary system can be traced back to Leibniz.

The Paris Academy of Sciences, of which Leibniz was a member, only showed interest in Leibniz's explanations of the binary system after the Jesuit missionary Joachim Bouvet, living in Beijing, pointed out to Leibniz the Chinese "I Ching" oracle from the 8th century BC. In the I Ching, 64 hexagrams consisting of solid and broken lines are given meanings, from which an oracle can be derived for one's current situation. There is a purely formal analogy between the solid and broken lines on one hand and the binary representation of 0 and 1 on the other. From this, Bouvet derived the claim that the binary system was already known to the ancient Chinese. With this interpretation, Leibniz's considerations on the binary system become a mathematical precursor to the 18th-century trend of Chinoiserie. The term Chinoiserie broadly encompasses forms of design in art, crafts, and architecture inspired by Chinese art.