Why it’s time to assimilate robots in the equation

Did you watch the movie “I robots “and almost or completely got jaded so that you couldn’t get to the culmination of it at all? As far as I can recall my five year old nephew as watched the same for not less than five times and he seems not to get enough of the same so that every time you mention a movie the thing that strikes his mind is the robot, maybe a sign of the diversity in generations they always talk of. If what Mr. Will Smith presented was too weird and unfeasible in your view then you likely not prepared for the events that are most probably going to unfold before the dusk of the twenty first century. The picture painted in that movie is most likely than not going to come to actuality in a span of not more than two decades time, yah decade, not a century!

I lately bumped on an editorial “The Umbilical Link of Man to Robot” written by John Markoff 0n 21^st October 2013 in ‘COORDINATES’ and as I marveled at the power of technology, I gradually started the longest errand of appreciating the underlying untapped efforts of robotics that is likely to be the next revolutionary turning point. The writer of the article starts by a fine description of a six-foot-humanoid robot that was created by Boston Dynamics which now stands in Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the short comprehensive description of this humanlike machine which the team of students, engineers and software hackers who are working on it called Atlas puts to limelight a good deal of mystery related to robots.

However, the gliding toy as Chris Atkeson a Professor in Human-Computer Interaction Institute would call them also pose an immense challenge, this is because their operations which are controlled by computer algorithms are not always predictable. He explains how at times while testing the prototype they have to hold it by the cord while one stands next to the big red emergency power button just in case the unanticipated transpires. A member of a team working on another robot called “Hubo robot” which is autonomously controlled by computer program and certainly a notch higher than the latter also says he cannot stand anywhere near Hubo while they are analyzing it, albeit both teams are immensely optimistic that all these shortcomings will soon be watered down and at last have a more sociable machine. A collaboration between software engineers and roboticist have always had a good track record and their optimism is not a thing to ever question.

This now signals a need for taming all that false fallacy that comes with itinerant microchip technology and automobiles for soon or later they could be our very next acquaintances in most of our operations. For some,  this could be top in the list of most transcendent myths the may choose never to believe just like a lecture about hydraulics, mobile phones or even the 33.69 petaflops super computer in China could have sounded to anybody living during the Shakespearean era. But now that automation is here with us, let make our most maiden steps into honorably embracing it.

We own the affirmative transformation, let make concrete and thorough moves to protect our state.

The events that ensued in late 2007 and early 2008 in what we later come to tag PEV are some of unpleasant histories that remain etched in the heart, soul and mind of every other Kenyan. Some were left with scars that will forever persist, some lost their loved ones, assets were shattered and relations banished, everybody demonized the whole thing both in religious and political podiums but one query remained unanswered, who was behind all that? The question couldn‘t be rightly responded to because some of us are too crafty so that once we commit a offence we play pious and even cheekily appear  on the screens and media to recount events as eyewitnesses while deep down in us we unrestrictedly  discern the wicked mortals we are. Obviously courtesy of the human in us, we speedily sought for a impeccable place to shoulder our blame and luckily enough having signed the Rome statutes the ordeal was not a hard nut to crack, so in few months’ time we received a an envelope with names of a small number of then leaders who were to bear the agony of what I would call the slip-ups of our own (citizens) causing. Have no minute idea of what justice has in hoard for those brothers, ours is the supplication that impartiality will take its course and finally put all these things to an ultimate end with both parties finding solace in justice.

    However, as we wait for the final verdict from the presiding juries which is apparently a jail term or the court not finding them guilty, the big question is, have those Kenyans who were ‘used’ to execute those injustices learnt sufficiently the reason not to take part in those irrational hooliganism actions that have no habitation in the twenty first century? We may take or refer a million batch of what we like to label perpetrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or any other court of law with a more scratching title but one fact still holds, we will always grieve the ache a of our own faults.  We like to pile so much crap on our leaders who I may not have adequate ground to justify their actions or testify in their backing, but it we who hurl stones at our brothers and sisters, lynch the churches, mime and mutilate fellow humanity and even do other indescribable things and quickly shift blame as we adopt a holier than thou attitude. The things that unfolded lately in Mombasa speaks volume of the much we might have learnt or not learnt from our previous experiences, for a sound mind there are a million and one ways of addressing problems and dissatisfaction but I bet violence is nowhere in that list. It takes rationality to know that an innocent citizen’s automobiles, a church and that hawker who stands the scorching sun the whole day to make the ends meet has nothing to do with a night shoot out, why then harm such, not unless you are running short of wits? I greatly condemn the killing of Sheikh and his cohorts, but friends that wasn’t the prudent way to respond to such a situation.

   When one Warren Harding back in 1921 during his inaugural speech told Americans, “our most dangerous tendency is too expect too much of the government and same time do little for it”, he possibly was addressing a generation that was to come ninety two years later and most specifically in Kenya. A generation that can even go to a point of defacing their neighbors to merely draw the attention of the government to their shortcomings, certainly because we think we can hold the government at ransom. It’s imprudent to consider that two wrongs can make a wrong right, it’s the kind of religion we seem to harbor, a religion that has no roots even in any of the religious accounts of the faiths we purport to practice. It even pains me, causes such a thick fog to settle over my heart and significantly feel ashamed to be counted among the present day youths some of whom have been bowed into mere puppets to be wrought by even the weakest forces. Buddies, most people at the top of the leadership pinnacle today have lived a best percentage of their lives; you let them take charge of your life they will not only destroy yours but also your habitation, few years later your actions will be baying for your blood and trust you me you may never stand them, for like they say, nature is always unprejudiced. Remember every act today is a building chunk significant to what you will be tomorrow and at your exposure lays the ability to break or make, the choice is wholly yours!

While trying to realize economic solidity let do it vigilantly………

Increasing taxes and failing to simultaneously check on governments spending is most  likely one of the economic grave mistake that a country can afford to commit. Superficially it may appear as an upright and a viable solution of putting the economy in check or a channel to accumulate more funds into the treasury but I beg to differ. With this, all we could possibly be doing is infringing pain and unnecessary turmoil to our citizens and doing nothing at all to the budget spending which most likely than not, isn’t going to change positively with even a single dollar. It will be equivalent to putting up a massive input and setting up a by far larger output that dry drain the economy, stagnant will then be our position forever no matter the effort.

I agree with every economist out there that fiscal policies, hypothetically appears an effective channel for nursing an economy. However, if poorly implemented they can turn into a time bombs that can easily retard the economy and in a worst scenario trip us into what economist would designate as hyperinflation. Thus, as the government resolves in this financial quagmire they should be ardent to exercise the maximum levels of caution so that the projected objective is realized, less we likely to sink into situations worse than those experienced in Zimbabwe.

I must also say that our government by virtue of having feeble unions to bargain for better wages and salaries has been spared the risk of inflation that comes as a consequence of gradual surge in consumers levels of income and goods and services prices. This situation though should not be assumed to be a lasting state of events especially with the trending state of revolution among African countries where folks are bit by bit becoming aware of their rights and indulgences provided in their constitutions. Then there should be accurately specified strategies to keep every economic development in watch because a time is possibly on its way when economic policies may not be adequately sufficient to counter the forces of inflation and other economic downslides.

Then those in government should come in terms with the reality that leadership is something more than cruising in big vehicles and sitting on the most lavish pews both in the parliament and their offices. They need to go slow on the government coffers if the picture of the Kenya painted  in the vision 2030 will get anywhere close to its realization.