Dear Editor,
When I read in SN of March 31, about four armed bandits robbing a Digicel outlet in the East Coast village of Mon Repos and then being arrested, I decided to write. They headed in a waiting motorcar to Buxton, which they hoped was a safe haven for their banditry exploits. But haplessly for the bandits, the Buxtonians pursued them vigorously, apprehended two of them and handed them over to the police. That was a great feat! I consider my standpoint about Buxton to be unflavoured since it is not founded upon any personal affiliation such as a mere natural coincidence of birth in Guyana. I want to state that gone are the days when crimes committed anywhere and everywhere were attributed to Buxton. It must be noted that Buxton has undergone a rapid social metamorphosis and that it is gradually and steadily re-positioning itself for better. Thumbs up to Buxtonians!
As I am writing this letter, my mind takes me back to the hourglass of time when, around 800AD, al Khwarizmi used mathematics to solve one of the most difficult family disputes recorded in ancient history, which the ancient lawmakers of his days could not resolve. One of his most outstanding achievements was when he travelled to Persia to sell al-Jabr – his magic book. On his way, he came across three young men in the desert, disputing uncontrollably over a family matter, which they thought had no solution. So when al Khwarizmi intervened, he learned their father had wished that all his camels should be shared among his three sons after his death, in such a way that the first son was to receive half of the camels, the second son one third, and the youngest one ninth. At the time of their father’s death, there were only 17 camels left, a situation which is arithmetically impossible, without a remainder. Al Khwarizmi offered a solution by asking a very simple question: “Suppose I freely offer you my only (one) camel, will you be able to share according to your late father’s wish”? You can guess their unanimous response.
As the story goes, al Khwarizmi finally gave them his only camel, so they had 18 camels in total. The whole ancient courtyard was appalled at al Khwarizmi’s crazy action, but the three brothers started sharing so that half of 18 camels gave the first person 9; one-third of 18 gave the second person 6 camels, and the youngest of them who was entitled to one-ninth had 2. When the sharing was over, they immediately realized that the sum total of the shares among them was 17, (that is 9+6+2) and still one camel remained, which al Khwarizmi had given them. That was how he resolved the conflict and still got back his one camel. Today, when you are solving algebra, you are actually using the formulas in al Khwarizmi’s magic book, al-Jabr from which modern algebra derives its name. Similarly with algorithms, which is a version of al Khwarizmi’s name.
I would also like to mention the man who invented the internet. I know some people will start raising their eyebrows because we all learned that nobody invented the internet; at least, that’s what we were all told in college. This man has been voted on several occasions as the most resourceful living scientist of modern times. The BBC named him as a “Digital Giant.” CNN called him “a Father of the Internet.” President Bill Clinton referred to him as “One of the greatest minds of the Information Age.” Oscar winner, Denzel Washington, was to star as this man in a new movie. Time magazine captioned him the “Unsung hero behind the internet,” and continued, “the Web owes much of its existence to [him], a math whiz who came up with the formula for allowing a large number of computers to communicate at once.” He has been placed in the same rank as Einstein. He was later honoured with Gordon Bell Prize, which is the highest award for technological innovation. He remains one of the few living persons to have received this particular title; the Gordon Bell Prize is only awarded to organizations or groups.
His name is Philip Emeagwali. He invented the internet. It’s true that the origin of the internet can be traced back to the 1960s when the United States, facing one of the greatest challenges relating to resources and information sharing and connectivity, funded research projects in its military agencies to build robust computer networks. Until the 1980s, wide area networking was still an insurmountable challenge to the extent that technology giants, including IBM went on hiding. But young Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian-born scientist, like the biblical David, took up the challenge and single-handedly designed, developed, programmed and implemented the first wide area information sharing network system using 65,000 processors, 24 million equations and 3.1 billion calculations, and shamed the giants. The technological breakthrough of this one man project gave birth to what has expanded to become the internet that the whole wide world is enjoying today. It is worth repeating that Philip Emeagwali invented the internet, and his achievement must be recognized, accepted by all and taught in schools, so that the next generation will no longer grow up in ignorance. It must be noted that my viewpoint is intended to be a lesson that we must learn to appreciate the fact that great feats require great features.
Yours faithfully,
MfonAkpan
