complex question about binary numbers

Dear Mr. Experts (and only, please).
I have always had this question about the binary system, but so far I haven't been able to find the answer.
My question is related to the nature of binary logic. Basically:
Is the binary code a logic one or only a semantic one. I mean for instance:
The letter A is translated 01000001 in the binary code. This number is only a conventionally made up number (which would make it a "language"), or, there is a logic behind that number?.
Some people have tell me that the numbers are related only with the order of the A letter in the western alphabet (the first one). That would also make the binary code a language (because it would depend on a conventionally established letter order). On the other hand, I tend to think that if the "Voyager"'s message was binary, then it might not be just a language, but a numerical (binary) logical and universal interpretation of the letter "A".
Am I making sense?
Thanks for your answers.

 

Yup. Binary (base 2) is simply a way of representing numbers, just like the system we're used to (decimal, or base 10) is another system.

The letter A actually has no representation in binary. It is 65 in ASCII (and in some other character code mappings based on ASCII). Then the computer needs to store that 65, so it stores it in binary as 01000001.

 

I see, thanks. I mean by a language, as a set of conventionally established codes, which as you guys said, is the case for the binary code: A way of communication based on an arbitrary convention. I'm not meaning a computer language, I mean just a system of communication.
At some point I thought that binary code might have been a logical system, sort of universal, but I guess it's not.
My thought about this are deeper, because our brains also work in a binary system (ons and offs of neurons), so I guess the way we perceive reality is also conventionally established.
I wonder then, when NASA sent their Voyager's message in binary code, what were they expecting? I mean, "Aliens" wont know our convention about binary vs other characters or ideas. What do you guys think?

 

Thanks so much Indrek for taking the time to answer this.
Sorry I'm slow on this, but I don't get why ASCII is a language while binary is not. I guess I would understand it better if you could answer: Why A is 01000001 in binary code and not 01000010. Is it just because A is the first letter in the western alphabet? That would make it an arbitrary convention, wouldn't it? I mean, when I write A in my keyboard, my PC stores it as 01000001, just because of that convention. I understand that it's different for numbers (because they represent amounts which can be passed to binary in terms of a "simplicity" logic), but letters and other stuff have to go through a conventionally design system in order for the PC to use it, am I right?

About neurons, they do work as 0 or 1, because they are equally stimulated above a certain voltage, and they are equally not stimulated under that same voltage (all or nothing law).

 

Thanks again Indrek, I have it clear now.
Respect to neurons, when they need to regulate the signal, the body uses more than one neuron. Each neuron works with the "all or nothing" law, but then a muscle can be stimulated by more than one neuron and depending on that number it could trigger a differential reaction (i.e. three impulses coming from three different neurons trigger a stronger reaction than a single impulse). A differential final reaction can also come from different impulse frequencies, although every impulse has the same value. Also, it depends where the neuron stimulates the muscle of course. What's PWM?