BY MULUGETA GUDETA
If the 19th and 20th centuries were witnesses to the industrial revolution in Europe, the 21st century, can be considered the century of unprecedented scientific and technological advances that have engulfed both developed and developing countries at the same time and with varying opportunities and successes. In this globalized world, science and technology are also digitalized and available to nay country that has the resources and the imagination to buy them in order to expedite their socio-economic developments.
A science museum is not of course a recreational facility or a kind of Disneyland where machines and men move at dizzying speed on moving platforms and the effects are often shock, surprise, fear of falling that children and youngsters in general, a kind of roller-coaster experiment. And that is all. A science museum is a completely different matter. It may have some element of surprise and entertainment as you see robots moving and speaking by themselves and wonder at the amazing effects and feeling Artificial Intelligence has already created among the museum goers at the newly inaugurated Ethiopian truly first state-of-the-art establishment that has surprised many in the local and foreign scientific communities as well as ordinary visitors who saw in those gadgets the face of the future generation.
Science and culture have close affinities, the one influencing the other, either accelerating socio-economic advances or retarding them depending on how we use new scientific discoveries and integrate them with the traditions and cultures. Science and technology have assumed primordial positions in the economic, social and cultural lives of people everywhere so much so that development and underdevelopment are almost exclusively defined with the parameter of scientific and technological advances.
Disparities in scientific and technological developments between developed and developing countries was due to complex factors of history, geography, climate, traditions and cultures as well as the time frames for starting the process known as modernization. Africa in general is considered “underdeveloped” because of its technological and scientific retardation whereas the Western world is hailed as a model of development simply because it started applying technology to economic benefits relatively earlier than any part of the world.
With the development of science and technology, capitalist countries invented the means and places of displaying their achievements through expositions and museums where the most advanced machines and gadgetry were displayed so that the rest of the world could see them or get inspiration from them. This was started roughly in the 19th and 20th centuries and reached its pinnacle right into the 21st century when science museums proliferated not only in the developed but also in the developing countries that are striving to play catch up with time.
According to Wikipedia, a science museum is “a museum primarily devoted to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery. Modern science museums increasingly referred to as ‘science centers’ or ‘discovery centers’ also feature technology. The public museum as understood today is a collection of specimens and other objects of interest to the scholar, the man of science as well as the more casual visitor, arranged and displayed in accordance with the scientific method.”
According to available information, the most famous science museums are located in the Western world. While there are some 47 most famous science museums around the world, the best and biggest ones are The Smithsonian national Air and Space Museum located in Washington DC, the Science Museum in London, Exploratorium which is found in San Francisco, USA, and the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.
Others indicate that the best science museums in the world number only ten or twenty depending on different preferences. The same sources tell us that there are two kinds of science museums, namely the natural history museum and the scientific and technological museum and have different origins. However both started with the collection and preservation of objects of scientific interests.
When we come to Ethiopia, available data indicate that the first science museum is found at the Addis Ababa University. “In the centre of technology and science university now stands the first sci3ence museum in Ethiopia. The science museum was designed and built entirely by MadaTech’s exhibition crew. The new museum is 250 square foot and show 30 interactive exhibits that demonstrate many diverse scientific subjects.” MadaTech is an Israeli institution that that stood out as an excellent educational and cultural centre and as leader of museum-based and scientific, educational and cultural organization.
Compare this early beginning of a rudimentary science museum with the state-of-the art museum recently inaugurated in Addis Ababa described in a recent newsletter by the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) as part of the country’s digital transformation endeavor, whereby the government of Ethiopia has recently inaugurated in the Ethiopian capital. The inauguration of this first truly science and technology museum in Addis Ababa has enjoyed wide media coverage depending on which aspect of the museum the media are focusing. Some of them marvel at the scale of the museum and the space it covers both inside and outside the huge building. Others concentrate on the architecture of the building while the rest give us a picture of the inside of the building and the scientific gadgets and IA products on display that are the wonders of the visitors.
As it was disclosed during the speeches made at the inaugural ceremony by government officials and members of the scientific community, what may be amazing is the timing of the construction of the museum. As we all realize, Ethiopia is currently passing through a difficult time in her modern history when the forces of progress and darkness are fighting for shaping the future of the country. The inauguration of the science and technology museum is no doubt a clear demonstration of the depth and breathe of the imagination of the Ethiopian people and the newly elected government that are fighting and winning on both the soft and hard power fronts.
In opposition to hard power which is primarily the use of coercive means and techniques Soft power is defined as, , “the ability co-opt rather than coerce. In other words, soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defining feature of soft power is that it is non-coercive, the currency of soft power includes culture, political values and foreign policy.” As defined by American political scientist Joseph Ney who coined the term in his 2004 book entitled, “Soft Power-the Means to Success in World Politics”.
In his book, Joseph Ney has provided food for thought to those powers who are still clinging to the old stereotypes in world politics whereby influence is secured by force of arms instead of applying positive examples of persuasion and peaceful influence. He says that, “ A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness may want to follow. In this sense, it is also important to set the agenda and attract others in world politics, and not only force them to change by threatening military force or economic sanctions.”
Indeed science and technology can be used by nations either to reflect soft or hard power but science in itself is soft power that can be harnessed and used either for peace or violence. In the case of developing African countries, soft power has a slightly different use, namely that of putting scientific knowledge to advance socio-economic development and for the freedom of hundreds of millions of people from famine and poverty.
Artificial Intelligence is supposed to have widespread applications in health, agriculture, education and is believed to narrow the gap in science and technology between African and Western nations. Africa cannot invented the wheel at this particular time when the speed with which technology is applied in economic development is proceeding at breakneck speed. Therefore there nothing wrong for Africa and Ethiopia as well to aspire to develop its soft power through the development of Artificial Intelligence as a driving force of modernization.
There are many debates going on around the merits or drawbacks of soft power, but for African countries like Ethiopia, soft power is not only the expression of the peaceful intentions of politicians but also opportunities for ordinary people to engage in researches that would change the lives of their compatriots who are facing myriads of problems. The African notion of soft power is therefore radically different to those in the West who focus mainly on the military aspects of it.
There were also many doubters who argued that Africa is not yet ready for soft power development or that Ethiopia has other priorities she has to deal with before embarking on such sophisticated scientific and technological undertakings. Yet, these arguments have proved untenable as soft power is helping many countries in Africa and Asia to develop their economies and emerge self-sufficient in food and health services.
Soft power development may not be a fast-track solution to Africa’s problems as its maturation and payback may take time and a lot of efforts. But the effort to develop a country’s soft power must start at some point with the available resources without of course compromising development policies. Ethiopia is now set for its time of reckoning and building the rudiments of an autonomous scientific and technological basis with the development or application of Artificial Intelligence that may look and sound esoteric for the uninitiated but upon closer observation, it is the trend of the near future and the harbinger of a new culture for the new generation.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 28 OCTOBER 2022
