APQ - APPON PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY

The phenomenon of incantation in Yoruba traditional religion has brought to fore the belief in and the reality of linguistic determinism as well as 'voice command' in the field of artificial intelligence. What the phenomenon of incantation has raised is the ability to use language to order and re-order reality from one form to the other. I argue in this paper that the act of using incantation in ordering reality is a field of artificial intelligence that involves the interrelationship between physical nature and humans. The aim of this work is to show that interconnectedness of things, humans inclusive have been a feature of Yoruba knowledge system before Nikolas Tesla theorized about the Internet of Things. The objectives here are first, to show that the scientific theory of functionalism and the logic of Eji-o'gbeta birthed incantation or 'voice command act'. Secondly, I also intend to decolonize the uncritical assumption that technology is purely an assemblage of machines based solely on western knowledge system. I shall adopt the methods of comparative analysis and conceptual clarification to show that incantation and voice commands related to advancements in artificial intelligence are two different dimensions of the same reality.

Open Full Text (PDF)