Interpreted vs Compiled

This is gonna be a silly one.

We typically use to describe how far away a programming language is from the output: interpreted and compiled.

But this makes me think... this is a kind of a spectrum. Python and Lua are commonly called interpreted, while C or Rust are considered compiled. But what about Java? Java is compiled to an intermediary bytecode before then being interpreted to the native machine's instructions.

How far can we go with this spectrum?

Well, let's first think of the extremes:

Compiled

First I think CPU instructions are the most compiled. But then I wonder, the CPU still goes through a lot of roundabout ways to execute your instructions in order to get a result. Transistors aren't exactly the most direct way to get something either.

Mechanical linkage should be more compiled than any CPU, since there is less indirection between your input and the outputs. But now that we've left the world of computers, mechanical linkage is event the most direct either. Chemical reactions could give you a result more directly. Or then what about what an "output" even is since we are then interpreting that output somehow?

Interpreted

Now I'm thinking Python isn't event close to the most interpreted. What about human language? Isn't someone telling someone else or an LLM to write a program in Java that is then interpreted in a virtual machine into CPU instructions more "interpreted"? I guess now this just comes down to layering more and more indirection between yourself and the output and you become the CEO of a dysfunctionally large corporation.

Conclusion

I don't know where I was going with this.