Category: Consciousness

Interview with Prof. Ron Eglash: African Fractals, Indigenous Knowledge, Modern Computing, AI, Generative Justice

‘It is not far-fetched to see a historical path for base 2 calculations that begins with African divination, runs through the geomancy of European alchemists and is finally translated into binary calculation, where it is now applied into every digital circuit from alarm clocks to super computers’

Prof. Ron Eglash

African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design (1999)

Ron Eglash
Professor Ron Eglash

I am so excited to let you know about the first in a series of podcasts focusing on interdisciplinary Science and Technology that I am doing for A Correction, as a new co-host. In this first podcast, I interview Professor Ron Eglash on African Fractals and the African origins of modern computing, the importance of education that is multicultural and goes beyond disciplinary boundaries, moving from an economy based on extraction to one based on generative principles, indigenous informed Artificial Intelligence and understanding consciousness through African influenced music and other fascinating areas of research.

For those of you who have been following my writing, his book African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design influenced one of my poems/prose: Simulation: Welcome to our World. It was great to be able to speak to him about his very important, informative, exciting, and groundbreaking research. You can listen to the podcast on the A Correction website or on Apple Podcasts: Ron Eglash on African Fractals and Generative Justice. It’s also available on Spotify and all the usual podcast platforms.

Professor Ron Eglash’s groundbreaking research on African Fractals revealed the African roots of modern computing, which was otherwise largely hidden. His TED Talk on the subject has had more than 1.7 million views and has inspired innovations in architecture, arts, literature, and education. He created a new discipline called ethnocomputing and today supports a suite of online simulations called Culturally Situated Design Tools, which have been used in American schools and internationally to allow students to learn math and computing through what he calls “heritage algorithms”. His most recent work on “Generative Justice,” develops an alternative economic theory based on indigenous principles. His educational background includes a BS in cybernetics, MS in Systems Engineering, and a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness. He is currently a Professor with appointments in both the School of Information and in the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan.

Image courtesy Luanne Cadd

Alone, To Dance We Must Still Dare

A deafening silence is filling our well of discontent.

Desperate, newsfeeds languish without laughter

‘Cause the ground has been grasped from beneath our feet,

So we yield and to Mercy, we beg

As furious, speedy spirals dizzy us,

Yet limbs, fingers and toes invisibly tangle to show what we share.

We isolate under the phones on our heads

And so still we meet.

Our musical tongue confesses

The volume in our homes we pump.

Alone,

To dance, we must still dare.

 

In these uncertain times here are some songs from all around the world to consciously inform, inspire, and uplift as we wait for the world’s storm to end. I pray we awaken from the wreckage, spirited to new meaning and inner sunshine, for one and most importantly for all. 

Spotify Playlist – Consciously Uplifting in Quarantine

YouTube Playlist – Consciously Uplifting in Quarantine

 

 

Simulation: Welcome to Our World

Zoom in

Enter Simulation

It’s dusk

She’s taking a leisurely stroll through her neighbourhood having just spent some time with her cousins. As they chat they braided her hair into intricate designs, mathematically mapped onto her head. She is walking towards someone. He’s wearing an eye-catching outfit made with materials, similar to hers, material woven and positioned to limit the effects of ‘saccadic’ eye movements [1], or the everyday rapid eye flickering, that cause our eyes to go momentarily blind to things and thwart our concept of time. They see each other, at just the right time. They sit for the ceremony, feasting on the sound of fine-tuned instruments designed with algorithmic precision to lift everyone’s spirit and help each person learn more about themselves and each other.

Our World

We live in a world informed by mathematical logic that supports the infinite potential to scale or to contract with the help of feedback loops and as the need arises; to do so deliberately and structurally, using geometrics like rectangles within rectangles, spheres within spheres, triangles within triangles x infinity. To do so individually, yet collectively, intentionally, artistically, logically, iteratively and recursively, in a linear but cyclical way that is informed by conscious knowledge systems. Life is lived at the intersection of mathematics, science, technology, art and community, influenced by the African continent [1] using base two arithmetic, which informs the binary code 1 and 0 used to develop digital technology today [1].

Reflecting on the past in the present for the future

The way we live in the present should be informed by how we lived in the past, yet as we move forward we rarely reflect. Digital technology is non-linear, but most contemporary story-telling still takes linear form, with a beginning, a middle and an end.

The Manual: A story we tell ourselves

  1. The evolution of human consciousness: Science and technology help us to understand our sense of being and our relationship to all life.

In our world, markets and technology do not guide us but instead the intention and desire to understand who we are not only individually but collectively inform our decisions. We become more empathetic, moving away from fear; developing our consciousness of life.

  1. Decisions at the individual and global level consider cause and effect individually and globally

A simplistic conceptualisation of the universal law of cause and effect states that whatever someone does will have consequences for them and for someone else at some point in time [3]. In our world, there is a collective understanding that both your intention and what you do determine what happens to you and to others. We seek balance.

  1. Interconnected and Interdependent: Anyone, anywhere, can contribute to answers

In our world, research is everyone’s domain. Thought experiments abound. We do not keep our ideas and expertise to ourselves because we rest knowing we take care of each other. We teach and we learn; we learn and we teach.

  1. Science is a servant to life

In our world, science is advanced based on what we want our best life to be. Technology isn’t developed simply because we can develop it. Technology is designed and used to serve the ecosystem of life.

It’s night

They jump up to join in the party; swinging to the music in the here and in the now. I join them. We are free, yet we are one.

Zoom out

A lit satellite view reflects her patterned braids

Centralised but decentralised,

We create like Picasso [4]; simple yet complex,

All seen; but anonymised,

Borders blur, space is reconceptualised,

Time moves slowly.

It’s dawn

Relaxed in discomfort.

Joyfully, and humbly resolved.

Let’s meet outside.

Enter reality

References

  1. Eglash, R., (1999) African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design.  New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
  2. Preston, J.M. (2017), Games, Dreams and Consciousness: Absorption and Perception, Cognition, Emotion, in Boundaries of Self and Reality Online, J. Gackenbach and J. Bown, Editors.  Academic Press: San Diego. p. 205-237.
  3. Bruce, R.R. (1988), The Law of Karma and the Principle of Causation. Philosophy East and West, 38(4): p. 399.
  4. McGee, J (2007), Primitivism on Trial: The “Picasso and Africa” Exhibition in South Africa. Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 52(2007): p. 161-167.