digits and liteacy

So, in the English department where I'm a grad student, we've (the institutional we here) been searching for "computers and writing" hires the past few years. We were indeed lucky to get Jeff Rice. This year's search was not so successful...

This candidate search comes out of the English department's digital literacy initiative. A story I've heard about this process involves a high-level administrator asking candidates a joke-question: "Digital literacy? What do fingers have to do with literacy?"

Indeed, what do fingers have to do with literacy? And here's the Achewood tie-in: notice Little Nephew (aka tha_snazzle) has only two digits--just hands/paws, no fingers. And yet, he's digitally literate (ruinous, though not down with the nomenclature).

Most of us have 10 digits, perhaps consequently the basis for our decimal numeric system. Little Nephew has two digits. If "civilization" were borne out of the consciousness of people of LN's species, would we then center on a binary system? Wait...don't we already?

Maybe this is just another odd-ball observation, but I'm sure there's something to a digits, the digital, and (digital) literacy juxtaposition. Sense, abstraction (concept), and consciousness. Where do they overlap? Where do they connect?