Summary Response

Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar who took his own life lamented in his last epistle to the world
that the complexity of human beings had been reduced to a number. There is truth in his assertion.
We have reduced human beings to numbers, of different ideologies, of different colours, caste and
creed. We have compartmentalised them within boxes to make them easier to identify. But that is a
different story, to which we will come to, by the end of this story.

The problem before us, an aspect of which we are going to study, is the reduction of
everything complex about humans to two numbers., i.e., 0s and 1s or as technically they are called,
the ON and OFF states, so that the complex machines we have created can process and devour the
data and its impact on politics. Will digital technology make politics impossible or just change the
way that politics is done?

Digital technology had radically changed the world we live in. It had changed the ways of our
life. The ways we socialise, the ways we fall in and out of love, the ways we entertain ourselves and
even the ways in which we satisfy our base carnal pleasures.

To understand how digital technology affects our day to day lives as well as politics in our
times, we have to understand what digital technology really mean. As the word implies, digital
technology is all about digits, 0s and 1s. To further elaborate, digital technology involves the flow of
information in form of 0s and 1s, the bits or binary digits.

To be clear, information had existed long before the start of digital technology. For animals,
information is in the form of various bio-signs, which they have learnt through a long evolutionary
process and learning. Humans are using language as main means of communicating information. In
ancient times, spread of information depended mostly through word of mouth. As technology
progressed, human beings way of spreading and storing information too had radically changed over
the centuries. First, information in form of written language was stored in scrolls and tablets, then it
was paper and now mostly it is all about bits and bytes.

So, how does the change in the way by which information is stored and processed is going to
affect/ distort/ destroy politics? There are a variety of ways by which digital technology can affect
politics.

The collection of data plays an important role in modern politics. Companies like Facebook,
Google, Youtube, Amazon etc now has collected vast swath of data about peoples online social
behaviours, shopping preferences, entertainment preferences etc. This data horde not only has big
impact on peoples privacy, but also on the conduct of politics.

The data horde has helped politicians in US to micromanage their campaign by sending
personalised messages to people, based on their political leanings.

Surveillance by state agencies is also another way by which data is collected and processed.
Chinese proposal of a social credit policy which will score people based on their online behaviour,
filial piety etc is an important step in this direction. A data police state, a figment of dystopian
imagination, can very well become a reality, armed with enough data and new ways to punish
citizens for their perceived deviations.
 Digital economy is also another facet of digital technology by which government can keep a
tab on citizens behaviour. Collection of financial data by poring over digital transactions will bring
resources via taxes. Also, by routing all transactions through the digital channel, the states hold on
monetary policy will become absolute. The zero lower bound on interest rates will be removed, so
that the government can tweak peoples financial behaviour to its needs. But this is only one side of
the coin. On the flip side, states authority over financial transactions might be on the decline, if the
cryptocurrencies can make headway. With absolutely no control of state, cryptocurrencies pose a
remarkable challenge to fiat money and monetary authority of government.

The state can also control information by censoring the information/ stopping the flow of
information to the people. This had been remarkably possible in China, where numerous sites are
banned. As technology had gone from paper to digital, the bans have shifted from books to internet
sites, which are not much of a radical change, but just an adaptation to changing scenario.

The ways in which we conduct politics is also influenced by spreading information. Internet
and related digital tech had opened up a horde of data, ready to be consumed by people. Also,
internet had opened up numerous channels like facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and other such social
media making ordinary people as creators of news. Citizen journalism has potential to influence
opinions, therefore politics.

Also, this vast swathe of information allows people to cherry-pick facts that suit their beliefs,
which in turn reinforce their own beliefs. While this confirmation bias had existed long before the
invention of internet, internet had become an intensifier of emotions. The abundance of people
flooding the internet had made it such that anybody with an ideology, however crazy it might be,
will find another follower of such ideology. This creates a cocoon effect in which people surround
themselves with people with similar ideas. Social media had also provided people with tools to shut
out people with other ideologies by blocking them out virtually.

This fast spread of information via social media had also created movements around the
world, like the Occupy Wall Street movement, Arab uprising and the recent movement is Chennai.
These movements are seen as mostly leaderless, a loose grouping of people with varying political
ideologies, temporarily unified towards a common goal. While the degree of success of these
movements can be questioned, the role of social media and digital technology in gathering such
mass of people cannot be questioned. However the sustainability of the movements that depends
on the social media is still open to question.

However, this impact of social media in enabling peoples movements cannot be

overestimated. Africa, a continent widely connected with advanced digital payment systems had
never seen any such peoples movements, while it has a potential for such movements on a large
scale.

The social media platforms had also created a new Channel for politicians to connect with
people. Donald Trump, now President on USA is using Twitter as a platform of connecting with his
constituency rather than official channels of communication. Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime
Minister is known for his twitter activity even from the time that he was Chief Minister of Gujarat.
 The rise of digital technology had also created a space for political views and opinions which
are considered as out of the realpolitik spectrum. These views range from xenophobia to
anarchism. Social media had helped to bring the people with ideologies together, preventing them
from feeling alienated in the virtual space. These politically marginalised groups are utilizing
internet more to spread their ideologies and to gain more followers. It wont be a surprise if such a
politically marginalised ideology gathers enough critical mass to dominate politics in future.

The spread of information vial digital technology has also compelled the state to be more
transparent. The speed and the enormity of information which can be transmitted in no time had
helped organisations like wikileaks to dump information about the activities of state creating
monstrous information dumps and people scouring over them to get information relevant to their
agenda.

DemocracyOS and websites like prsindia supply people with political data helping to make
governments more accountable and transparent. Also, forums like these create a debate around
politics. But it should be noted that social media had already too many vicious trolls, who are none
but people among us, preventing meaningful discussion on politics from moving forward, by
instigating personal attacks and using up weapons from their troll arsenal to shut up people who
differ with them.

Social media had also helped in providing a realtime feedback to various government
policies and actions. How far this feedback mechanism is going to be used for policymaking and
breaking is yet to be seen. While social media platforms coupled with mass movements can topple
governments, the potential of social media platform as a sole platform for changing the ways of
government is woefully unexploited.

So, what about people who are left out of these digital platforms or people who had chosen
to live outside the virtual world? It is a tough question to answer, but Indias recent demonetisation
experiment and the polls conducted by Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India offers a clue. Mr.
Modi, in his app had asked Indians to rate demonetisation. In the survey, 93% of the people had
supported demonetisation.

Though it may seem surprising that so many people had supported such a painful move, a
careful scrutiny will demystify the high approval ratings.

The app is a smartphone app, hence only people with smartphone could have taken the
survey. If somebody owns a smartphone, then he is digitally conversant to deal with alternate
payment systems like mobile banking, internet banking, e-wallets etc. Needless to say, this segment
of population will be the least hit by the pain of demonetisation. So, it is no surprise that the digital
converts had supported this move and had looked down upon their less fortunate brethren.

This point to a dangerous occasion, where a government hears what it wants from people
whom it wants, while shutting out other voices. The government cannot afford to lead such an
isolated existence, but state, an entity much similar to the body of humans that made it can be a
cocoon in the virtual world, with no real connection to the people who have made it.

The possibilities digital technology open before us is astounding. But, Is digital technology
going to make politics impossible?
 Human beings throughout the ages had various visions about their future. Some of them
dreamed about a utopia, where happiness shined on every human being like sun. Some pessimistic
people dreamt of a dystopian world filled with misery and unhappiness. Both fortunately and
unfortunately earth had neither become a utopia nor a dystopia. We had been carefully following a
path somewhat in the middle.

Is digital technology got us to throw off from that somewhat middle path? It is a really
tough question to answer at this juncture. We can only speculate.

On one vision, we can see a data police state which has all the data of citizens in its hand and
can track each and every move of them, even before they can think about it and punish them for any
minor deviation from the official line. Or we could have a world of binaries in which people are split
up, each with their own belief systems, never wanting to hear what others have to say, their
confirmation bias reinforced by internet facilitated by digital technology.

Or in another vision, we can have a state with more transparency accountable to each of its
citizens, responding to the thoughts of the citizens via the feedback system provided by digital
media platforms, thereby engaging citizens in policymaking and towards a more participatory
democracy.

Sadly, as recent events show, we are shifting more towards a dystopian version of future.
Living in a world of binaries, we can see a divided populace, where each side shouts to the other, if
you are not with us, you are against us, with each side being reinforced in their own political beliefs
not ready to hear another and crushing the voices in between in their tussle. In such a situation,
which is inevitably due to the speedy spread of information and the enormous quantity of
information available to choose from, yes, politics will be impossible, as modern day politics depends
on debate and discussion. Digital technology, by virtue of dumping information might create a
society in which nobody wants a debate and will prefer clinging onto their long held beliefs without
feeling any need to examine them.

Yes, the above situation is only a speculation. But, given our present we are not so far from
such a future, where digital technology will have stopped conversation from all parties involved,
thereby completely stopping the political process.