Digit versus number. Theological aspects of digitalization

Abstract

Number is the principle of the arrangement of the world by God. Calculation is the principle of human knowledge of the world. The digit is a sign for recording the calculus and, accordingly, a tool of man, but not of God. The difference between a digit and a number typologically corresponds to the difference between a letter and a word. The digit, like the letter, being a human instrument, tends to isolate itself from the natural being, divine in its source, and closes itself in the artificial intellectual space of formal rationality. Such isolation is mortally dangerous for humanity. Just as, according to the words of the Apostle, “the letter kills” (2 Cor. 3, 6) if it is devoid of the Spirit, so the digit is also capable of killing if it is not followed by a number and the divine Logos standing behind it. At the same time, as the letters connected with the Spirit are transformed into spiritual Holy Scriptures, the most important means in the salvation of mankind, so digitalization, filled with true, and not fictitious meanings, can become a very effective means in the knowledge of the world and the education of a person. It is only important that this process be guided by the Holy Spirit, and not by the dark demons of  virtual “meta-universes”.