<p>Food, clothing, shelter and money have always been considered essential for survival on this planet. Now you can add the smart phone to the list. At the very top.</p>.<p>You will need the phone to serve as a mediator in any financial transaction (buying, selling, paying salaries, taxes, etc). However, the transaction will be conducted using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins and not in traditional currencies such as rupees. Depending on its market value, owning a single bitcoin will enable you to buy a mansion if you are rich while its smallest sub-denomination (one hundred millionth of a bitcoin) will let you purchase a few grains of rice if you are poor. Welcome to 21st century digital society and the ever-widening digital divide.</p>.<p>The phrase ‘digital divide’ usually refers to two concepts – the economic divide, and the computer-literacy divide. In the former, a small segment of the population benefits substantially from the digital economy because it can afford to own the latest digital devices and pay for fast access to the web. In the latter, even the people who can afford to own a computer or smart phone do not have the necessary skills to safely navigate the web without being distracted by enticing ads or clicking on spurious web links and having their systems hacked.</p>.<p>Starting at kindergarten, educators have been focused on instilling in youngsters the fundamentals of the three Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic. There are two types of arithmetic – the old-fashioned digital version which involves the use of fingers, i.e. ‘digits’, for counting purposes versus the newer digital version which does not involve counting at all but still requires using the fingers, as in texting, pointing and swiping. This new version emphasises division and subtraction rather than addition and multiplication.</p>.<p>If you are looking for a job, you will be required to apply online and, most likely, the job will be a service-sector job such as making deliveries – groceries, people, medicine, whatever. And this is where the standard math operations kick in. Mostly addition and subtraction.</p>.<p>Curious about how digital addition works? Suppose you order a chair costing Rs 1,000 from an e-commerce outfit such as Flipkart. If you are prepared to wait a few weeks for your chair to arrive, there is no shipping charge. You want your chair next week? Add Rs 200 for shipping. Can’t wait that long but want it tomorrow? Be prepared to fork out an extra Rs 150. Of course, Flipkart will ship your chair for free and you will get it tomorrow if you are willing to buy another Rs 500 on stuff you don’t really need. So, instead of spending Rs 1,000, you just ended up spending Rs 1,500, but only if you are greedy and impatient.</p>.<p>How about subtraction, you ask? Here’s where things get really interesting since knowing more about digital subtraction also opens your eyes to digital division. Suppose you want to return the chair you purchased online. Not only do you not get back the shipping and handling charges you paid, you are also charged a mysterious restocking fee which can be as much as 25% of the purchase price of the chair. If you use Ola to shuttle passengers from one place to another or, for that matter, deliver pizza and groceries to hungry customers using Zomato or Swiggy, naturally you are expecting to get the tip that has been added to the bill. Guess what, you are going to see only a portion of that tip in your pay-check. The rest of the tip was subtracted by the delivery platform. Since you are making a lot of deliveries – both people and things – the IT companies got a whole lot richer, you not so much. Subtraction and division in one easy step.</p>.<p>As for multiplication, all you have to do is post something negative about someone or something you don’t like and hope it goes viral. You will be famous, even if it is for a nanosecond.</p>.<p>Once you have mastered basic digital arithmetic, you may wish to study differential calculus, the digital version, which revolves around the theory of limits. Perhaps you signed up to be an Uber driver? You will never receive the hefty bonus promised by the company for completing more than 25 trips since the ride-sharing algorithm will ensure that your 26th trip never materialises. You have reached your limit.</p>.<p>When you were in school, you never took math classes seriously. Maybe, now you will? I’m keeping my digits crossed.</p>
<p>Food, clothing, shelter and money have always been considered essential for survival on this planet. Now you can add the smart phone to the list. At the very top.</p>.<p>You will need the phone to serve as a mediator in any financial transaction (buying, selling, paying salaries, taxes, etc). However, the transaction will be conducted using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins and not in traditional currencies such as rupees. Depending on its market value, owning a single bitcoin will enable you to buy a mansion if you are rich while its smallest sub-denomination (one hundred millionth of a bitcoin) will let you purchase a few grains of rice if you are poor. Welcome to 21st century digital society and the ever-widening digital divide.</p>.<p>The phrase ‘digital divide’ usually refers to two concepts – the economic divide, and the computer-literacy divide. In the former, a small segment of the population benefits substantially from the digital economy because it can afford to own the latest digital devices and pay for fast access to the web. In the latter, even the people who can afford to own a computer or smart phone do not have the necessary skills to safely navigate the web without being distracted by enticing ads or clicking on spurious web links and having their systems hacked.</p>.<p>Starting at kindergarten, educators have been focused on instilling in youngsters the fundamentals of the three Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic. There are two types of arithmetic – the old-fashioned digital version which involves the use of fingers, i.e. ‘digits’, for counting purposes versus the newer digital version which does not involve counting at all but still requires using the fingers, as in texting, pointing and swiping. This new version emphasises division and subtraction rather than addition and multiplication.</p>.<p>If you are looking for a job, you will be required to apply online and, most likely, the job will be a service-sector job such as making deliveries – groceries, people, medicine, whatever. And this is where the standard math operations kick in. Mostly addition and subtraction.</p>.<p>Curious about how digital addition works? Suppose you order a chair costing Rs 1,000 from an e-commerce outfit such as Flipkart. If you are prepared to wait a few weeks for your chair to arrive, there is no shipping charge. You want your chair next week? Add Rs 200 for shipping. Can’t wait that long but want it tomorrow? Be prepared to fork out an extra Rs 150. Of course, Flipkart will ship your chair for free and you will get it tomorrow if you are willing to buy another Rs 500 on stuff you don’t really need. So, instead of spending Rs 1,000, you just ended up spending Rs 1,500, but only if you are greedy and impatient.</p>.<p>How about subtraction, you ask? Here’s where things get really interesting since knowing more about digital subtraction also opens your eyes to digital division. Suppose you want to return the chair you purchased online. Not only do you not get back the shipping and handling charges you paid, you are also charged a mysterious restocking fee which can be as much as 25% of the purchase price of the chair. If you use Ola to shuttle passengers from one place to another or, for that matter, deliver pizza and groceries to hungry customers using Zomato or Swiggy, naturally you are expecting to get the tip that has been added to the bill. Guess what, you are going to see only a portion of that tip in your pay-check. The rest of the tip was subtracted by the delivery platform. Since you are making a lot of deliveries – both people and things – the IT companies got a whole lot richer, you not so much. Subtraction and division in one easy step.</p>.<p>As for multiplication, all you have to do is post something negative about someone or something you don’t like and hope it goes viral. You will be famous, even if it is for a nanosecond.</p>.<p>Once you have mastered basic digital arithmetic, you may wish to study differential calculus, the digital version, which revolves around the theory of limits. Perhaps you signed up to be an Uber driver? You will never receive the hefty bonus promised by the company for completing more than 25 trips since the ride-sharing algorithm will ensure that your 26th trip never materialises. You have reached your limit.</p>.<p>When you were in school, you never took math classes seriously. Maybe, now you will? I’m keeping my digits crossed.</p>