I am non-binary not only in terms of gender but also in terms of ideology. Many people have to make choices, such as the left and the right [politically]. For me, they all coexist…
— interview with Audrey Tang on Voice of America, September 2023.
This past May, Audrey Tang, a former computer hacker with an estimated IQ of 180, stepped down as Taiwan’s first Minister of Digital Affairs (MODA). Ms. Tang was born male — a child prodigy, reading works of advanced mathematics at age five, and writing computer programs at age seven. By the age of 19, he had already held positions in various software companies and worked in California’s Silicon Valley. He/she began transitioning to female in 2005, and changed her English and Chinese names.
She currently identifies as non-binary.
This is somewhat odd, because most modern computers are binary… storing data as 0s and 1s. That’s the only choice a computer has. Either “0” or “1”. You can mix up the 0s and 1s in a long string, but it’s still a binary number.
The new quantum computers, however, are based on qubits, each of which can hold 0, 1, or both states simultaneously, depending on their mood. This suggests that quantum computers will also identify as non-binary.
I’ve not come across any estimates of the IQ for a typical quantum computer. But they are, by all accounts, incredibly smart. Which is to say, dangerous.
That’s something of a paradox, or maybe a contradiction, to think of a non-binary technology as “dangerous”. Most humans who identify as non-binary wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Ms. Tang became deeply interested in democracy during the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan, when a group of mostly young people occupied Taiwan’s legislative chambers, demanding that a proposed trade agreement with Mainland China be handled in a more transparent, democratic fashion than what was taking place.
Ms. Tang’s participation in that political movement later resulted in an appointment with the Tsai Ing-wen administration, to the newly-created Ministry of Digital Affairs, with the goal of designing technology that would enhance Taiwan’s democratic institutions.
Tsai Ing-wen was the first woman to be elected President in Taiwan. All Taiwan’s previous presidents had identified as “men”.
So, a string of binary leaders who probably knew very little about programming binary computers.
During the COVID crisis, Taiwan stepped into the spotlight when everyone (including yours truly) started buying more electronic devices in a desperate attempt to remain socially connected. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is far-and-away the world’s leading maker of chips.
(That’s computer chips, not potato chips. Frito-Lay is the biggest producer of potato chips.)
During COVID, countries like the U.S. and Germany reached out to TSMC to help alleviate bottlenecks in the production of chips, especially chips for automobiles. (Cars and trucks have become increasingly binary over the past several decades.) The semiconductor shortage was exacerbated by former President Donald Trump’s trade war with China. (President Trump being himself binary. Extremely binary, in fact.)
Unlike many of the powerful CEOs in America’s tech industry, Ms. Tang has long been an advocate of free software as a tool for promoting democracy and social well-being.
‘Free software’ is not quite the same thing as ‘open-source’ software. The differences are somewhat technical and hard to explain, but you might describe ‘free software’ as a computer program that starts out having a certain orientation, but later — after spending some time out in the big, wide world — ends up looking and acting different.
A “free spirited” computer program.
But still binary.
Recently, the word “binary” might also be applied to American politics… except instead of 0s and 1s, we have “red” and “blue”. But it’s hard to tell which color corresponds to “0” and which corresponds to “1”. Maybe it doesn’t really matter, considering how insignificant both of those numbers are, in the bigger picture. Insignificant in the sense that, if I look in my wallet and find “1” dollar, it might just as well be “0” dollars.
I should thank my lucky starts, my wallet is non-binary.
Ms. Tang is one of the co-authors of a new book, Plurality, which outlines ways that digital technology can be used to improve — rather than destroy — democracy.
You can download the book for free. Even if you have a “0” in your wallet.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.