Different approaches to e-governance could bear fruit for African countries. jurgenfr/Shutterstock
More and more governments around the world are turning to electronic methods to deliver services and communicate with citizens via the internet.
Cellphones are everywhere in Africa - but that doesn’t mean the digital divide is closing. Legnan Koula/EPA
Digital concerns underpin many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Gender equality, good health, quality education, industry innovation, smart and sustainable cities: these all require strong information and communications technology systems to become a reality.
Technology has a lot to teach kids, especially if it’s available in more than one language. Rich T Photo/Shutterstock
Technology, like mobile apps and online learning platforms, is becoming an increasingly important teaching tool all over the world. That’s also true in emerging markets; accessible technologies can essentially be used to take information and digital resources into remote, rural and under-resourced schools.
Our predictive skills are about as reliable as a crystal ball. Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
The phrase “fourth industrial revolution” has become ubiquitous. It’s meant to denote a huge shift in the socioeconomic fabric of society, driven by the availability of increasingly intelligent machines. These will be able to do things we can’t do as well as take care of things we can do. Jobs will be lost. And new jobs will be created.
Cybersecurity is everyone’s problem, all over the world. NicoElNino/Shutterstock
Cyber criminals are extremely active across the globe – and, unfortunately, also very successful. In Africa, too, businesses are losing billions to cybercrime.
Business owners may feel the benefits of automation outweigh the risks. Victor Moussa/Shutterstock
Businesses around the world are cottoning on to the value of transferring labour from human workers to machines. Automation can increase efficiency and decrease labour costs. It helps employers to avoid complex challenges like wage increase demands, labour protests and strikes. Consumers also benefit from automation when products and services become cheaper because of reduced input costs.
Understanding how certain proteins deal with light absorption can inspire modern solar technology.
Proteins are “large”, complex molecules that perform most of the complicated and vital tasks in living organisms. So when scientists study proteins, they can produce blueprints for a new generation of bio-inspired technologies.
While it is undeniable that AI has opened up a wealth of promising opportunities, it has also led to the emergence of a mindset that can be best described as “AI solutionism”. This is the philosophy that, given enough data, machine learning algorithms can solve all of humanity’s problems.
LiDAR, was used to “redraw” the remains of the city, along the lower western slopes of the Suikerbosrand hills near Johannesburg
There are lost cities all over the world. Some, like the remains of Mayan cities hidden beneath a thick canopy of rainforest in Mesoamerica, are found with the help of laser lights.
Now the same technology which located those Mayan cities has been used to rediscover a southern African city that was occupied from the 15th century until about 200 years ago. This technology, called LiDAR, was used to “redraw” the remains of the city, along the lower western slopes of the Suikerbosrand hills near Johannesburg.
Georges Alexandre Lenferna, University of Washington
Revolutions are, as a rule, rare and momentous processes. But across the African continent the potential is ripe for a clean energy revolution that upsets and leapfrogs the old fossil-fuel order.
