Mereja Forum

[DefendTheTruth]

The challenge is multifaceted, is of a different layers, of different sources and impacts on our society. Only a well architected and soundly founded base of knowledge can help to prepare oneself for the challenge. The competition is very high, to conquer and own the source of knowledge and its gains. Today's competition is no more about how to have an access to territories or the rich resources in those territories. It is about owning the knowledge of the state of the art. If you have allowed yourself to neglect the task of advancing knowledge, then you have already lost and lost big.

As such no serious community of people can afford to blink away from scientific knowledge or contemplate about postponing the time at which to tackle the challenges of lack of knowledge.


Those who have innovated already big are still thriving and thriving much steadier, they say "we never sleep", it is not without a reason or a repercussion.

On the other hand those who have not yet innovated anything of great significance for the well-being of their community and the wider global one seem to be still in a deep sleep, figuratively speaking. They feel to have enough time ahead of them, which is completely wrong. We are in a fast-paced global competition to conquer the world using knowledge.


I used this prelude to my today's post to challenge the forumers about their preparedness for the challenge of charting the new era's pinnacle of knowledge that has been termed Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This topic keeps the world deeply engaged and quite unsettled on both sides of the spectrum of challenges and benefits.

Let the forumers of this site start to share what they think or understand about the basic concepts of AI and its potential impacts on the societies of the world.

What is its impact, potentially or actually?
Level of impact, if any?
How to get prepared at all levels, at an individual and communal levels?

You can keep yourself busy analyzing all possible political and other social issues of the world, but may you also try to spend just 5% of your time to share your opinion with regard to AI?

[DefendTheTruth]

To the lazies of Mereja forum, here is what I wrote from the theoretical perspective in practical terms on the ground.

Where are those trying to act educated like Educator and Horus, who feel to know everything?

Where is that knowledge?

Well, the likes of Abere rely completely on the way Horus and co. think, if Horsu stops to breath, then Aberu is no more anybody anymore.

[DefendTheTruth]

Worse yet, the likes of Aberu wish to stop the use of Drones (UAV) from being used against rebellions against the constitutionally established government of a sovereign country. In other terms Aberu and Co. would like to stop the advancement of human knowledge and scientific innovations in order to promote guerrilla warfare of the past and thwart the efforts of building democratic institutions.

Let them try it!

[DefendTheTruth]

The projected benefit of AI adoption on Africa’s economy is tantalizing. Estimates suggest that four African countries alone—Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa—could rake in up to $136 billion worth of economic benefits by 2030 if businesses there begin using more AI tools.

“We want to be standard makers”
Some African researchers think it’s too early to be thinking about AI regulation. The industry is still nascent there due to the high cost of building data infrastructure, limited internet access, a lack of funding, and a dearth of powerful computers needed to train AI models. A lack of access to quality training data is also a problem. African data is largely concentrated in the hands of companies outside of Africa.

I see herein a danger, very serious one.

The move to ban TikTok in the US is mainly based on arguments of data ownership, if I did follow the news correctly.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/0 ... au-policy/

[DefendTheTruth]

Let's have the same understanding at the conversation level first:

=> Digital transformation is not necessarily the same as the idea of automation, at least technically speaking.
Business processes of many countries/companies have been automated already for a number of decades. But that is not yet the same as digital transformation, which the world is speaking about today.
Simply because somebody has started to execute its business processes on the basis of digital platforms doesn't mean (correspond with) the idea of digital transformation..

=> For a successful digital transformation there has to be a preceding business process automation stage, which will generate massive amounts of (valuable) digital data.

=> The automated business processes need to be integrated, which has been the challenging point due to the multifaceted platforms of digital data and functions.

=> The rest of the world has now managed to overcome the challenges of heterogeneous digital platforms to successfully integrate their existing business processes and innovate new ones on the top of the new innovations.

=> The next logical stage of the progress of digitally processing of data has now opened a new opportunity of a novel idea of using the science of Artificial Intelligence for a new type of automation, in this case the automation of mind, to express it differently.

If this sketch of the logical sequence of the developmental stages of business process based on digital platforms is valid, then the current discussion in Ethiopia is missing something.

Aspiring is good but aspiring the right way may lead to success.

I have already shared the idea behind this at:

viewtopic.php?t=254478, starting in the year 2019, I think.

[Naga Tuma]

The challenge is multifaceted, is of a different layers, of different sources and impacts on our society. Only a well architected and soundly founded base of knowledge can help to prepare oneself for the challenge. The competition is very high, to conquer and own the source of knowledge and its gains. Today's competition is no more about how to have an access to territories or the rich resources in those territories. It is about owning the knowledge of the state of the art. If you have allowed yourself to neglect the task of advancing knowledge, then you have already lost and lost big.

As such no serious community of people can afford to blink away from scientific knowledge or contemplate about postponing the time at which to tackle the challenges of lack of knowledge.


Those who have innovated already big are still thriving and thriving much steadier, they say "we never sleep", it is not without a reason or a repercussion.

On the other hand those who have not yet innovated anything of great significance for the well-being of their community and the wider global one seem to be still in a deep sleep, figuratively speaking. They feel to have enough time ahead of them, which is completely wrong. We are in a fast-paced global competition to conquer the world using knowledge.


I used this prelude to my today's post to challenge the forumers about their preparedness for the challenge of charting the new era's pinnacle of knowledge that has been termed Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This topic keeps the world deeply engaged and quite unsettled on both sides of the spectrum of challenges and benefits.

Let the forumers of this site start to share what they think or understand about the basic concepts of AI and its potential impacts on the societies of the world.

What is its impact, potentially or actually?
Level of impact, if any?
How to get prepared at all levels, at an individual and communal levels?

You can keep yourself busy analyzing all possible political and other social issues of the world, but may you also try to spend just 5% of your time to share your opinion with regard to AI?

DefendTheTruth:

First, I would say amen to your suggestion to focus on science. I found the term robotic allies in the narrative about fruit picking robots amusing. From what I remember, this is the first time that I heard the term ally applied to nonhuman gadgets.

Second, I wish that there are easy ways to explain what science essentially means to young Ethiopians. I really think that there is a very fertile culture in Ethiopia for scientific thinking.

At the same time, the word science sounds so exotic in Ethiopia that the youth might think of it as a challenge to tackle.

If there is some grain of truth in this thinking, how can teachers, especially in elementary schools and even sooner, bridge the gap?

This simply points to clearly explaining what science means in the easiest ways in local languages.

For instance, children are taught early on about true and false. I think that if young children are taught that science is a practice of sorting out accuracies from fallacies, it would go a long way to make it easier for them to understand it for the rest of their lives. Add to that the culture of patience, common in local Ethiopian names.

That practice and quality are fertile grounds to produce scientists. Well, this is what I think and I don’t know if this is not being done on the ground today. Just expressing what I think is helpful.

Third, it sounds to me that you were a fighter saying ቁበ ኮ፣ ቁቤ ኮ። It happens that while your fingers were pulling ቃታ, many fingers were busy with binaries or digits. Right?

The digital revolution has come a long way and makes you busy at this age of your life. Right?

That brings me to my fourth point.

I think that the pointing finger and the rest on the human hand are probably the most powerful natural guns.

Generally speaking, a gun is an idle metal unless its trigger is pulled by a finger. Right?

A car is an idle box before it is turned on. Right?

The computer is an idle box before it is turned on. Right?

The robot is an idle gadget before it is turned on. Right?

I am not underestimating their powers or what they are capable of doing when the trigger is pulled or when the switches are turned on.

If you can manage the human finger or fingers, you can manage them effectively. Right?

So, it boils down to a management problem, not a technology problem. The most powerful natural guns, the fingers, are used to this day to sign management papers. Right?

A Department of Transportation manages a relatively smooth operation of transportation using cars, trains, airplanes, and ships. Right?

Is there a Department of Technology in Ethiopia that manages technology? Why not?

This brings me to my final point here.

I knew in Ethiopia a bright Ethiopian computer science expert who already had his second degree from the UK before the www became public. That was a long time ago.

He later earned his Ph.D. Degree in South Africa in Computer Science and became an Assistant Professor in Canada.

Shockingly, he passed away in Canada suddenly not a long time after he arrived. To this day, I fail to fathom his passing away suddenly at his prime age in his professional career.

It is sad that experts like him are not the Secretaries of Technology of Ethiopia.