What are 數位 (shuwei) and the ⿻ symbol?

Open the book ⿻ Plurality and an unfamiliar symbol, ⿻, appears on the cover and in the chapter titles. In "⿻ Voting" or "⿻ Publics", a symbol sits where you would normally expect a word. What does this symbol stand for, and why is it used in place of a word? The key is a Taiwanese word: 數位 (shuwei).

In short

數位 (shùwèi, written "shuwei" in English) is the Mandarin word for "digital" as used in Taiwan. The book explains that when this word is applied to people it also means "plural" [1][2]. From this it places a play on words at its center: to be digital is to be plural.

The book then decides to use the symbol ⿻, two overlapping squares, both in place of the noun "Plurality" and in place of the adjective 數位 [3].

For example

Audrey Tang's title. Audrey Tang served as Taiwan's minister in charge of digital affairs, and on August 27, 2022 became the first minister of the newly created 數位發展部 (Ministry of Digital Affairs) [4]. She left office in 2024 [5]. The book most closely associates the side of Plurality about what it does (the prescriptive side) with 數位 as used in this title [2].

How a 2016 poem was translated. When Tang took up her post as a minister without portfolio (in charge of digital affairs), she wrote a poem as her job description. As chapter 2-2 of the book gives it, its last lines read: "When we hear 'the singularity is near' — let us remember: The Plurality is here." In the Chinese version of a 2022 outline by Tang and the economist E. Glen Weyl, this "Plurality" is translated as 數位 [6]. In the book's traditional Chinese edition (the edition in the characters used in Taiwan), by contrast, chapter 2-2 renders the same line as 多元宇宙，已經來臨 [7].

The book's title. The English edition's blurb names the book's idea "⿻ 數位 Plurality", setting the symbol, the Chinese characters and the English word side by side [8]. The bibliographic title of the English edition is Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy.

In more detail

How the book explains it

The preface of the English edition says: "In Mandarin, 數位 means both 'digital' and 'plural.' To be plural is to be digital. To be digital is to be plural" [1].

The chapter of definitions (chapter 3-0) adds a condition. It describes "the traditional Mandarin characters 數位 (pronounced in English as 'shuwei') which, in Taiwan, mean simultaneously 'plural' when applied to people and 'digital'" [2]. The book gives this word the role of capturing "the fusion of the philosophy arising in Arendt and Allen" — the philosopher Hannah Arendt and the political scientist Danielle Allen — "with the transformative potential of digital technology" [2].

The preface of the Japanese edition adds a reading of shuwei in small script beside 數位, and says that in Taiwanese Mandarin the word means both "digital" and "plural" [9].

How to read ⿻

In chapter 3-0 the book declares: "throughout the rest of the book we use the Unicode ⿻ to represent this idea set in both noun form (viz. to stand in for 'Plurality') and in the adjective form (viz. to stand in for 數位)". It gives two reasons: the richness of the definition, and "the way it blends together elements from traditional Mandarin and various English traditions" [3].

How to read it depends on the context: "As 'Plurality' typically when used as a concept", and "As 'digital', 'plural', 'shuwei', 'digital/plural' or even as a range of other things such as 'intersectional', 'collaborative' or 'networked' when used as an adjective". The book adds: "None of these existing words perfectly captures this idea set, and thus, in some cases, one might simply say 'overlap' or 'overlapping' to describe it literally" [3].

The symbol itself is U+2FFB in Unicode (the standard that numbers the world's characters). Its official name is "IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION CHARACTER OVERLAID": one of the symbols for describing how Chinese characters are built, the one that shows two components laid over each other [10]. The Turkish translation has decided, like the Chinese edition, to leave ⿻ untranslated [11].

What the symbol stands for

Figure 3-0-A of the book shows the three sides of Plurality as a Venn diagram [12]. Arendt's circle holds ⿻ and the word "Is"; Allen's circle holds a ring in rainbow colors and "Should"; Tang's circle holds 數位 and "Does".

The book particularly identifies with ⿻ the view that "The social world is neither an unorganized collection of isolated individuals nor a monolithic whole. Instead, it is a fabric of diverse and intersecting affiliations" [2]. The idea that "Diversity is the fuel of social progress" it associates with "the rainbow elements that form at the intersection of the squares in the elaborated ⿻ image on the book cover" [2]. In a 2024 conversation, Weyl said, in effect, that he likes the overlapping image on the cover better than the word "Plurality" [13].

A footnote on the names for Taiwan

In a footnote, the book says that ⿻ "could also be used to represent the closely overlapping meanings of Audrey's interpretations of the two standard variations on the name of her jurisdiction, obviating the need for conflict over ROC v. Taiwan". It adds: "However, we will leave this observation for someone else to build on given the risk of creating too much ambiguity in the meaning of ⿻" [14].

What is debated

• The claim that 數位 means plural is phrased in different ways. The English preface says broadly "In Mandarin"; chapter 3-0 adds the conditions "in Taiwan" and "when applied to people"; and the new preface of the Japanese edition says 台湾華語 (Taiwanese Mandarin) [1][2][9]. The preface in the older Japanese translation said 中国語 (Chinese) [15]. The wording varies between editions and chapters.
• The traditional Chinese edition mostly translates Plurality as 多元宇宙. Chapter 3-0 of the traditional Chinese edition reads ⿻ as 多元宇宙 when a noun, and as 數位, 多元, 交織, 協力 or 聯網 when an adjective [16]. Even in Chinese, one word is not enough.
• How did readers take it? According to a report from a reading group in Japan, many participants were interested in the point that 數位 means both "digital" and "plural". The report says they want to think further about why the two are so naturally linked in Taiwan [17].

Where it fits in Plurality

How to read 數位 and ⿻ is settled in the book's chapter of definitions, chapter 3-0 [2][3]. Of Plurality's three sides, 數位 is the symbol of the side about what it does. The preface raises this play on words and restates Plurality as "the symbiotic relationship between democracy and collaborative technology" [1].

The chapter titles that follow use ⿻ as an adjective, as in "⿻ Voting", "⿻ Publics" and "⿻ Freedom".

Related articles: - ⿻ Plurality — the whole set of ideas the symbol points to - Collaborative technology — the "digital" side - Digital democracy — the idea of overlapping "digital" and "democracy" - Three paths — what Plurality stands against - ⿻ Voting, ⿻ publics and the rights operating system — chapters that use ⿻ as an adjective

Further reading

1. Plurality, chapter 3-0 "What is ⿻?" (English, book) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-0/eng/
2. Plurality, preface (English, book) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/1/eng/
3. Tang and Weyl, "Plurality: Technology for Collaborative Diversity and Democracy" (2022, multilingual, outline) — https://www.radicalxchange.org/updates/blog/plurality-technology-for-collaborative-diversity-and-democracy/
4. The traditional Chinese edition's preface, "數位觀照" (in Chinese, book) — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/tree/main/contents/traditional-mandarin
5. Preface of the Japanese edition of Plurality, "多元性を見る" (in Japanese, book) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/1/jpn/
6. Hirokazu Nishio, "Pluralityは無色の新語として作られた" (Plurality was created as a colorless new word) (in Japanese, transcript of a conversation) — https://scrapbox.io/nishio/Pluralityは無色の新語として作られた

Sources

1. Plurality, preface (English edition) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/1/eng/ ［CC0］
2. Plurality, 3-0 "What is ⿻?" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-0/eng/ ［CC0］
3. Same, the paragraphs on how the ⿻ symbol is used — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-0/eng/ ［CC0］
4. Hirokazu Nishio, "Pluralityとは" (in Japanese) — https://scrapbox.io/nishio/Pluralityとは
5. Ken Suzuki, commentary on the Japanese edition of Plurality (in Japanese) — https://note.com/digitaldemocracy/n/nb8b59a6b775d
6. Tang and Weyl, "Plurality: Technology for Collaborative Diversity and Democracy" (2022), poem in the Chinese version — https://www.radicalxchange.org/updates/blog/plurality-technology-for-collaborative-diversity-and-democracy/
7. Plurality, traditional Chinese edition, 2-2 "數位民主的日常", epigraph (in Chinese) — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/tree/main/contents/traditional-mandarin ［CC0］
8. The blurb and bibliographic ReadMe of Plurality — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality
9. Plurality, Japanese edition, preface "多元性を見る" (in Japanese) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/1/jpn/ ［CC0］
10. Unicode Character Database (U+2FFB) — https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt
11. Glossary of the Turkish translation — https://github.com/omgbbqhaxx/plurality
12. Plurality, 3-0, Figure 3-0-A — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-0/eng/ ［CC0］
13. Hirokazu Nishio, "Pluralityは無色の新語として作られた" (transcript of a 2024-07-26 conversation, in Japanese) — https://scrapbox.io/nishio/Pluralityは無色の新語として作られた
14. Plurality, 3-0, footnote (Taiwan) — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-0/eng/ ［CC0］
15. Plurality, Japanese edition, earlier draft of the preface, "複数性を見る" (in Japanese) — https://github.com/nishio/plurality-japanese/blob/989d08b5f3bfdc01f714e188a50f8561857a553f/contents/japanese/1-preface.md ［CC0］
16. Plurality, traditional Chinese edition, 3-0 "何謂多元宇宙？" (in Chinese) — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/tree/main/contents/traditional-mandarin ［CC0］
17. 島津明香, "「共につくる」民主主義へ——Plurality読書会 第1章・第2章ふりかえり" (Toward a democracy we make together: looking back on chapters 1 and 2 of a Plurality reading group) (2025-05-15, in Japanese) — https://note.com/shimazuharuka/n/n1c19db52b10a