DYNAMICS OF TECHNOLOGY THAT SHIFTS THE QUALITY OF LIFE
There is a clear difference between noise and sound. Noise is very disruptive and orderless whereas sound is very much organized which has a direction of information. In other to reach a large crowd you will need some desirable amount of noise and depending on the direction the amplified sound is going; it may be torture. Interpreting sound and making use of its information depends on you level of exposure in the genre which is the context of the sound. You may wonder what noise has to do the dynamics of technology affecting the quality of human life. Consider technology as the noise which is contextual to most cases. The history of technology can not leave out electrical engineers whose research and hard work has brought us this advancement. In the 90’s most software engineers were electrical engineers and since the emergence of complex hardware and also complex intelligent systems both jobs have to be professionally on separate sides.
In this article we will look at how busy governments are busy pumping money into artificial super intelligence at the expense of improving the nations health. Health is wealth and that translates very will to “no issues no spending”. Healthcare has become very expensive if you consider the annual fee for a subscription to an AI model. As a software developer I have worked along side AI models to solve coding issues and most time to help me with configuration android build files. But I tell you what I will spend in an event if I am not fortunate and contract Upper Respiratory Track Infection (UTI) will likely get me 3-year subscription with GitHub copilot. Why is the research into improving healthcare, education, technical vocational infrastructure, job creation, environmental protection, social welfare and agriculture not a priority.
One can easily say this is clearly a third world issue and systems are set up in advanced and developed countries. United States of America once monopolized the Artificial Intelligence sector and arguably there have less issues in most of the areas stated in the tail end of the previous paragraph. But it may interest you to know that in 50 years, they will not be able to turn fast enough to grab any of the issues that may be arise from these sectors. Let’s go back to the 1800’s, when atomicity was discovered. This was an opportunity for various sectors of the economy as the applications were endless. The moment a discovery that a single unstable neutron will simply decay into a proton, electron, and an antineutrino. A process that releases a small amount of energy which when the process is inflated by means of introducing a unstable atomic nucleus (like Uranium-235) can expedite a large release for energy which could set of massive set of chain reactions that could lead to an explosion the table turned and all what happened was countries achieving massive silo’s containing bombs.
SECTORS THAT ATOMIC RESEARCH SHOULD HAVE AFFECTED
Nuclear Energy: Large machineries in factories where huge amount of energy is required should have relied solely on nuclear energy. This should have been the largest source of energy known to man. Sustainable source of energy like that comes from atomic research are very safe and could have reduced the over reliance on renewable sources of energy that a population uses such as hydro-electric, wind propellers and solar energy. Life could have been easier for people around the world because electricity would have cost almost nothing.
Agriculture: Development controlled radiation-based pest control technology to sterilize large populations of male insects, which when are then released into the reduce the production of offspring and leading to a decline in the pest population. This will reduce the pest population to a bare minimum. Research into mutagenesis for crop improvement also referred to as mutation breading is a technique where scientists intentionally introduce genetic mutations into crop plants using physical or chemical agents like radiation or chemicals to create new varieties with desirable traits, such as higher yield potential, enhanced disease resistance, or improved stress tolerance, thereby boosting crop production and improving food security. Radioactive technology can be extended to the storage life span of food items making them holsum for consumption after a considerable amount of time. Food irradiation is a food safety technique that uses ionizing radiation to extend shelf life and reduce foodborne illnesses attributed to spoilage and decomposition. All of these factors will increase food security and improve the quality of life.
Medicine: When we talk of atomic research in medicine the first thing that comes in mind is radiotherapy. The success of radiotherapy as the only widely implemented brings a halt to further exploration of atomic research in medicine. Radiotherapy is quite effective but possess a lot dangers in terms of side effects to patients. Doctor’s advice that at certain ages, it will not be a good option but as far as we know radiotherapy can cause tissue damage, can introduce other forms of cancers, expensive and does not resolve the problem wholly and limited knowledge radiobiology that fueled safety concerns. Atomic science has a lot on areas in drug discovery, development and pharmacokinetics. If these areas are considered, drug research using radioisotopes can used to label molecules and track their behavior in the body. Radiopharmaceuticals can be incorporated into nanoparticles for precise drug delivery to specific cells or tissues. Atomic research can be used to design, track activity of drugs, present a roadmap for targeted treatment and even to packaging where gamma radiation is used to sterilize drugs, medical devices, and packaging, ensuring they are free from contaminants.
These are the various use cases atomic research could have been used to improve lives but history tells us that in 1896 when Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity, laying the foundation for nuclear science and research was on going, as at 1942 the first controlled nuclear chain reaction was achieved by Enrico Fermi under the Manhattan Project. When it was realized that accelerated atomic energy can be very destructive, governments shifted atomic research to defense and military projects. No provisions were made to hurnerce the advantages of this discovery to better human lives. In 1945 the first nuclear bomb was made in Japan. 49 years down the line of atomic research all that we saw was the race to get nuclear bombs. This has been the trend of policy makers, not to take into consideration the population in its country. COVID-19 brought major economies to their knees and this is just an influenza of some kind. They world is not at all prepared for a medical crisis. I have my reservations on how these pandemics occur and their origin but if we had a balanced world and the cake is equally shared, we will not be facing these issues.
In today’s world artificial intelligence is the new niche, prior to that we have seen science fiction movies where a man gets into a robot and with the aid of artificial intelligence communicate with the machinery to process some tasks. Science fiction movie Iron Man was pre-released in 2008. The first artificial intelligence large language model was released in November 2022. The U.S. restrictions on NVIDIA GPUs to China are a key part of the ongoing U.S.-China tech war, driven by concerns over national security and technological supremacy. This is only because U.S want China left behind in the achievement of Autonomous Defense Systems.
AREAS THAT AUTONOMOUS DEFENSE SYSTEMS WILL BE APPLIED
Surveillance and Reconnaissance: Artificial intelligence can be used in drone systems where an instruction set will be given to the drone which can be a flying machine or a vehicle and with no human intervention, it will take of and carry out those instructions. It will perform evasive maneuvers when engaged and when successful return to its base. These autonomous systems will have biometric systems for facial recognition, access to satellite imagery as part of their reference data, advance radar and camera hardware, enterprise infra-red systems and signal intelligence to intercept enemy communications and spoofing or jamming equipment.
Automated Command and Control systems: Artificial intelligence will power systems to analyze battlefield data and recommend strategies (e.g., resource allocation, troop movements). Pre-emptive maintenance where diagnostics will be run on military hardware to access their viability during operation in order to implement safeguards to prevent unnecessary risk and reduce casualties. Battlefield simulations will be key in training and planning of an incursion. This is the best way to train a soldier or military personnel to be ready prepared for unseen circumstances making them updated on real world battlefield experience.
Revamp of the Missile Defiance systems: The accuracy of missile defense systems has been an issue for some time now. It is able to intercept 5 out of 12 missile and that is a big problem if a cruse missile flies into the civilian population. Artificial intelligence can make this a breeze when it calculates all possible scenarios and fire of at least two intercept missiles, which one will definitely make target. This will all be done with little or no human intervention.
These are the areas artificial intelligence are going to be used, but the opportunities in other areas that will benefit the quality of human life has been left out. This paradigm has continued and countries have pumped in all of their tax payer’s monies gearing up for some war that will not happen anytime soon. Most government promise healthcare, better education and generally policies that will better their quality of life but fail to do so only to continue with military ambitions of his predecessor who is on the other side of the wall ideologically.
Technologies can be either electronic, chemical or biological but it must first improve our lives as human beings before any research can be done to weaponize it. Currently software developers and data analysts are standing to gain more working with artificial intelligence, this can be extended to medical and agricultural. Massive datasets are available and we can make good use of that to make decisions and forecasting. As an African I know we are still calculating our steps and as it looks now, we are not walking anytime soon. If I can advice my leaders on the African continent, what I will say is data is everything. With the aid of Artificial intelligence, we can accomplish a lot.
The behavior of cup in hand and begging for money must stop. The conditions that come with these loans worsen the plight of your citizens. Let develop or system to produce critical thinkers, standardize the educational system, improve healthcare and what ever is left of the resources of the country must be protected not to be touched for at least 50 years. This thing I talk of in my own understanding of how things work in Africa is unachievable. Africa has been sold out and buried in debt. These loans are kind that a policy maker takes and don’t design a repayment plan.
This article is by Kelvin Kabute. I am a diploma holder in Software Engineering and Web Technologies. I work with the Ghana Library Authority as a Librarian and an Advocate for Technology development for the youth.
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