The Logic

Electric Vehicles (EV) charging stations and park at the University of Guelph

Imagine a conversation among three individuals about global issues. The three individuals are Dara (intellectual), Ade (futuristic), and Monday (fatalistic).

Dara: Hello friends. I am happy you agreed to meet. It’s been a while – busy attending conferences. I just arrived from a workshop in Kigali.

Monday: No qualms Dara. It has been predetermined that we will meet today.

Ade: By who? Assuming I didn’t schedule it in my calendar, Alexa and Cortana will not remind me. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).

Monday: What is AI when everything is based on the intelligence of the developer and the desirability of the data?

Dara: To corroborate your point (Monday), the GPS in my car tells me to turn left when I am supposed to turn right.

Ade: Interesting! I told the Uber driver that drove me here to stop the GPS because it added five kilometres to the journey. I know the way better.

Monday: I once heard that Google’s facial recognition can not differentiate between a cat and a dog.

Ade: They are working on it. Have you heard of Nvidia? Homo Sapiens are intelligent creatures though they want to be Homo Deus as alluded to by Yuval Harari.

Monday: It baffles me how arrogant we have become. How can humans start behaving like the Supreme being? Impossibility!

Dara: I am confused by epistemological and metaphysical reasoning. But for sure we have surpassed our ancestors. As a young man, I never thought we will be able to check email, watch television and video chat with a smart phone, browse the internet in the Amazon jungle, and use autonomous vehicles.

Ade: Yes, the future is here. Whether it is autopilot as asserted by Elon Musk (Tesla) or LIDAR as pushed by Waymo, autonomous vehicles (AV) will work.

Monday: What will people do when cars start driving themselves? And can AV work in Lagos (Nigeria) or Delhi (India)? I don’t understand these inordinate ambitions.

Dara: These are not illusions. AV, digitalization, 5G technology, and the fourth industrial revolution are already a reality. Most devices are digitized, my friends drive electric vehicles (Nissan leaf and Tesla: challenges include wait period after order, lack of infrastructure – charging stations vs petrol stations, and a fully charged Nissan leaf can only travel 250 km).

Waymo is ahead in the AV sector with early riders in Phoenix and Chandler, AZ.

And blockchain technology is creeping in …

Ade: Yes, the blockchain. A distributed ledger that is immutable, decentralized, group managed and enhances trust among strangers. It will curtail fraud in many spheres of life.

Monday: The problem with the two of you is that you refuse to look at the downside of all these innovations and the limitations of man.

Dara: Who told you we have limitations?

Monday: We are mortals and we have limits. On another note, what about the sustainability of electric and autonomous vehicles? They both need lithium-ion batteries and the cobalt is from Congo. Do you think it is ethical?

Ade: The electrification of transportation will mitigate climate change. Research is ongoing on how to replace cobalt with other materials. Moreover, stakeholders are working hard on the reduction of conflict minerals from Congo entering the international market.

Wait till we have electric planes. It will happen in our lifetime.

Dara: Ade, just ignore Monday. He is lagging! Remember that today is Friday. On the issue of blockchain, I heard from a Canadian researcher, Adekunle, explaining the concept at my conference in Dar es Salaam few weeks ago.

He alluded to an idea called crypto-labelling – based on blockchain. I did my research and discovered that he published an article about it in 2016.

Ade: I saw the powerpoint presentation via a friend. He linked opacity and food authenticity. The presentation reminded me of the first time I read about opacity in Nassim Taleb’s book.

Monday: Which of his books? I just completed “Skin in the Game”.

Ade: Can’t remember. All I know is that crypto-labelling is a process that will allow consumers to trace, authenticate, and ensure transparency in their food supply and value chain.

Monday: These are not problems of people in rural areas who grow their own food.

Dara: Now that you mentioned food, I remembered a book “How ethnocultural food reaches our tables” on the challenges people face in terms of the procurement of their culturally appropriate food.

Ade: Great book! I learned about farmers market, community shared agriculture, nexus between immigration and food, global food regime, and the definition of food.

Monday: By the way, one of my friends, Wondimu, indicated that the world is a small place for refugees. Maybe availability of appropriate food affects their destination.

Ade: Destination is a function of many variables including employment and availability of public goods.

Monday: And access to credit. So that it will be easy to buy nice cars and a big house.

Dara: Warning – according to Prof. Saringe “You cannot base your retirement on a property”.

Ade: Thanks Dara. I’m paying today. I hope this café accepts WeChat pay (or Alipay).

Monday: I always appreciate spending time with both of you, but some issues are unsolvable.

Dara: Please withdraw that statement. It will affect your locus of control. All challenges are solvable, we only need to be cognizant of context specificity of the phenomenon.

Ade: Furthermore, the future is unpredictable, but planning gives a shock absorber.

Monday: See both of you next month…

By

Bamidele Adekunle @badekunl

June 12, 2019