Wow, Mwalimu Adepoju, I need a whole cow, with all four legs for Nigerian style pepper soup, before I could answer these many and very tough questions. I am getting ready to go on my fourth lecture tour on the continent right now. I hope to visit your questions some other time.
One quick point: I have never heard Brother Philip Emeagwali say or read where he wrote that he is the "Father of the Internet." Such a claim would be a very tall order. Even former Vice President and very honorable citizen Al Gore got some shellacking for poorly phrasing his role in the invention of the Internet. So, I am not sure whether Brother Philip would say something like that and go un-shellacked for a long time. But on that, I yield to your better evidence.
----- Original Message -----From: toyin adepojuSent: 11/22/2010 10:17:52 AMSubject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: PROFESSOR TOYIN FALOLA HAS NOCONNECTION WITH THE CRITIQUES OF PHILIP EMEAGWALIBangura,You state that:" It is quite obvious that many of Philip Emeagwali's critics know very little or nothing about Computer Science. Thus, they do not understand what the man's contribution means to the field. While some of his claims are exaggerated, it cannot be denied that he has made a contribution. When these journalists decide to do serious investigations, they will seek the expertise of those African scholars in the field of Computer Science."I am curious about the following points1.Your claim that "It is quite obvious that many of Philip Emeagwali's critics know very little or nothing about Computer Science. Thus, they do not understand what the man's contribution means to the field."What aspects of the critic's arguments leads you to make this assertion?You might want to respond in relation to the charges against Emeagwali.Emeagwali has,for more than a decade asserted the followingA.That he is father of the Internet.His critics claim that is false because he has made no contribution to any aspects of the Internet's development.His claim to this achievement is that he remotely programmed a computer. It is argued that remote programming was not only being done by others,but that the Internet was already in existence before then and that his efforts had no effect on its development.He had earlier claimed that he was a forerunner in the idea of the possibility of an Internet.There is no evidence that his work that his work was a forerunner of the Internet. I will be posting the responses to my enquiries of the journalistic sources who publish this claim.So far,none of them has been able to provide any evidence for this claim.The best I have got from them so far is references to other uncorroborated sources and to Emeagwali's website.Emeagwali has later modified his claim to state that he is a father of the Internet.The judges who awarded him the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize state that he has made no impact on the development of the Internet.B.Emeagwali states that he developed the CM-2,the supercomputer known as the Connection Machine, which he used in winning the Gordon Bell Prize.The 1989 Gordon Bell Prize judges not only state that is not the case but that he made no contribution to the development of the CM-2.There is also no evidence,anywhere, of such a contribution by Emeagwali.C.Some supporters claim that he has influenced the oil industry.That might be so and it is plausible because his prize winning work was in that field but there is no evidence of any such influence from his work.E.Emeagwli states that he made a world record calculation at his 1989 Gordon Bell Prize win but that is is not true because,according to the official report of the prize by the judges, his speed was the second fastest so it could not have been a world record.F.Emeagwali states that his work has been vital to the computer industry .There is no evidence of any impact of his work on the computer industry.G.He asserted that he has many patents.There is no evidence of any except for his website.His recent change of wording to "patent claims" does not hold water because as far as his interview with Reuben Abati more than ten years ago in the Guardian,Nigeria,he clearly stated that he has many patents.So the recent change is an effort to modify the lie.2.You state:"While some of his claims are exaggerated, it cannot be denied that he has made a contribution."it is important to know how you categorise an exaggeration as different from outright lies which Emeagwali's claims are, in my view.It is as,also important to know what you understand his contributions to be.3.You state:"When these journalists decide to do serious investigations, they will seek the expertise of those African scholars in the field of Computer Science."Those journalists wrote to the judges who awarded Emeagwali the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize.So,those judges are qualified to assess his work,are likely to have followed or kept an eye out for it since he won the award and are not likely to be envious of him, so anybody asking the views of those judges on Emeagwali's claims to achievement in relation to that prize, and his career in general, was being very serious about the effort.Perhaps since you have been very busy of recent you might not have been aware of the stages the current investigation of Emeagwali has gone and taken the opportunity to express your views on the subject from the perspective of an informed scientist. You might not know that those journalistic publications in Sahara Reporters and NEXT were inspired by the serious analysis on this forum,USAAfrica,of Emeagwali's claims to achievement.Even now,your contributions would be much appreciated as coming from as a scholar with advanced degrees in the sciences and computer science and who has written and published a book on African mathematics.Those contributions would prove a point of comparison with those of the scientists Alan Karp and Jack Dongarra who awarded Emegwali the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize but who state that his work on the prize made no impact in his field and are not aware of any impact his work has made in any field and who state that he has virtually achieved nothing as a scientist apart from winning that prize.We certainly need contributions by Black scientists particularly since the voices that tried asses the issue critically on Naija IT Professionals Yahoo group were silenced by the others who did not want the issue discussed further,perhaps out of fear of dethroning a person they understand as an icon,even though Emeagwali continues to refine and publicise his claims.As it is,the issue has attracted the attention of the Nigerian government which is reviewing the act of placing Emeagwali's image on the country's postage stamp.I wonder if your statement on the need to seek the expertise of African scholars in computer science represents an effort to emphasise both their Africanness and their professional competence. If so,why?ThanksToyin--
On 19 November 2010 17:40, Abdul Karim Bangura <theai@earthlink.net> wrote:
Mwalimu Afolabi, you should have just told the IDIOTS that Mwalimu Toyin Falola does not have the time or the knack for such nonsense; he has better things to do with his time. It is quite obvious that many of Philip Emeagwali's critics know very little or nothing about Computer Science. Thus, they do not understand what the man's contribution means to the field. While some of his claims are exaggerated, it cannot be denied that he has made a contribution. When these journalists decide to do serious investigations, they will seek the expertise of those African scholars in the field of Computer Science.--
In Peace Always,
Abdul Karim Bangura/.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dare Afolabi
Sent: Nov 19, 2010 6:31 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue SeriesSubject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: PROFESSOR TOYIN FALOLA HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE CRITIQUES OF PHILIP EMEAGWALI
On a related note, I've responded to critics of Professor Gabriel
Oyibo in an article on Nigeria Village Square,gabriel-oyibo-a-break.html>.
Dare Afolabi.
On Nov 18, 7:32 pm, toyin adepojuwrote:> rejoinderto
> A misconception is passing the rounds of Nigerian centred fora that
> Professor Toyin Falola is spearheading the recent critiques of Philip
> Emeagwali, a Nigerian scientist accused of making false claims about his
> achievements.Sakhos Silas Ejiofor even titled his essay on the Emeagwali
> affair in the Nigerian Village Square site a
> a Sahara Reporters article written by Toyin Falola.
>
> Please note:
>
> Professor Toyin Falola has not written a word on the Emeagwali saga.The
> only connection Toyin Falola has with those critiques is that he hosts the
> listerve USAAfrica,where a debate on the subject took place some time ago.A
> broad range of subjects are discussed on USAAfrica spanning various
> aspects of Africana existence.
>
> Thanks
> Toyin Adepoju
--
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