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New Directions at the Interface of Consciousness Studies

and
Artificial Intelligence

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 Myth Computing: A Snapshot

Ray Gazworthy Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Compcros

Abstract
Nature, goals, founders, inspirations, methods, sub-fields and philosophical
implications of myth computing, the adaptation of ideas from mythology in
developing computing systems.

Definition, Founders and Originating Inspirations of Myth Computing

Myth computing consists in the adaptation of ideas from mythology in
developing computing systems. This field was pioneered by Eugene
Inakonta at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Turai Yu of
Makerere University, Uganda. Both scientists were inspired in this initiative
by the work of Kunle Olukotun, Cadence Design Systems Professor of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University,
founder of Afara Web Systems and director of the Pervasive Parallelism
Laboratory at Stanford and Sylvester James Gates, Ford Foundation
Professor of Physics at Brown University.
Olukotun has long recognised the possibilities of metaphorical
relationships between myth, particularly the Orisa cosmology of his Yoruba
ethnicity, and science. He states in response to an enquiry, “Ogun is the
Yoruba god of iron and steel, invoked by all whose occupations rely on
iron. Computer servers are sometimes called ”big iron", so my server's
name is "Ogun", thus making his institutional email address at a time
kunle@ogun.stanford.edu. The current url for the Stanford Hydra Single
Chip Multiprocessor research team he leads is http://ogun.stanford.edu/.
Inspired by Olukotun’s example, Inakonta and Yu’s research benefits from
the interpretation of mythic forms as processes rather than as faith related
or imagined personalities.
Gates has built a good part of his career in developing Adinkras, a graphic
mathematical language, the name of which is derived from
the Adinkra visual symbolism created by the Gyaman of Côte d’Ivoire and

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further developed and made famous by the Akan of Ghana. Gates and his
research partner at the time, Michael Faux, gave that name to their new
symbol technology in recognition of the correspondences between the
older system and the newer development, both mathematical
forms demonstrating artistic significance and even a degree of visual
identity.

In "Adinkras: A Graphical Technology for Supersymmetric Representation

Theory", Gates and Faux state:
The use of symbols to connote ideas which defy simple verbalization is
perhaps one of the oldest of human traditions. The Asante people of
West Africa have long been accustomed to using simple yet elegant
motifs known as Adinkra symbols, to serve just this purpose. With a
nod to this tradition, we christen our graphical symbols as “Adinkras”.
Drew Costley in “Jim Gates and the Symmetry of Space and Time” describes
these Adinkra symbols as geometric objects that advance knowledge in
supersymmetry, encoding mathematical relationships between
supersymmetric particles, supersymmetry being a field of scientific
cosmology defined by “a proposed symmetry of space and time that relates
to two elementary particles, bosons and fermions, in which each particle is
associated with a particle from the other” [Adinkra thus] “creating the
mathematics of this balanced universe” [showing] how a particle in our
dimensions relates to a particle in [ another] dimension”, Gates states.
Myth computing adapts the insight represented by Faux and Gates
Adinkras, summed up in a quote from the Greek philosopher/scientist
Aristotle quoted in one of their papers, that “thought is impossible without
an image”. Gates and Faux create and manipulate elegant, artistically
exquisite visual diagrams representing complex fields of equations,
insisting that the visual forms prove more illuminating than the equations.
Does the human mind operate most effectively when developing
understanding through linking abstraction, represented by ideas and
concrete forms, which may be graphic and verbal? That is the domain of
enquiry represented not only by the supersymmetric Adinkra of Gates and
Faux but also by Inakonta and Yu’s adaptation of Gates and Faux’
innovations in terms of their own use of verbally projected images from
mythic expressions in conceiving new ideas, the implications of which they
explore through computer engineering.

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Inakonta and Yu’s efforts in myth computing is a creative adventure at the
edge of the possible. It is a bridge between two very different domains of
knowledge, discovering and applying their deeply underlying
demonstrations of human cognitive processes. This bridging effort is
foreshadowed by a symbolic naming by one of their inspirers, Kunle
Olukotun, whose earlier initiative, Afara, means “bridge” in his native
Yoruba, as Olukotun is quoted by Linda Geppert as stating in her 2005
report on Afara’s Niagara microprocessor.
Analogical Thinking
Inakonta and Yu describe myth computing as inspired particularly by their
first playful and later serious deductions from a poem they both enjoy, an
example of an ese ifa, a literary form of the Yoruba origin Ifa system of
knowledge.
The poem is about a paradoxical orisa or deity named Eshu, a poem first
translated in Ulli Beier’s Yoruba Poetry, later anthologised in Jack Mapanje
and Landeg White’s edited Oral Poetry from Africa and currently
reproduced online in Martin Kondwani White’s edited African Poems: Oral
Poems from Africa as “Eshu, God of Fate”:
Eshu turns right into wrong, wrong into right.
When he is angry, he hits a stone until it bleeds.
When he is angry, he sits on the skin of an ant.
When he is angry, he weeps tears of blood.

Eshu slept in the house –

But the house was too small for him:
Eshu slept on the verandah –
But the verandah was too small for him:
Eshu slept in a nut –
At last he could stretch himself!

Eshu walked through the groundnut farm.

The tuft of his hair was just visible:
If it had not been for his huge size,
He would not be visible at all.

Lying down, his head hits the roof:

Standing up, he cannot look into the cooking pot.

He throws a stone today

And kills a bird yesterday!
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The scientists describe the various sections of the poem as suggesting to
them ideas on transformation, in relation to justice, in the first line, in
terms of biology, the rest of the first stanza, in terms of space, the second,
third and fourth stanzas and in the context of time and causation in the last
stanza.

Inakonta and Yu first encountered this poem about the paradoxical

character of Eshu, and its possibilities for stimulating new frameworks in
scientific thinking in Abiola Irele’s “The African Scholar” where Irele argues
for the possibility of conjuncting modern science and Yoruba origin Orisa
cosmology as represented by the figure of Eshu. Irele quotes the poem as
projecting ideas of randomity leading to unusual reconfigurations of the
probable and the improbable, suggesting the possibility of advancing
scientific cosmology by stimulating new styles of thought through
imaginative conjunctions between Eshu’s randomistic personality and
ideas in non-linear science.

The scientists have adapted the ideas they have gained from the poem in
the light of Irele’s suggestions. They have done this through their
specialised knowledge of science, in terms of particular strategies through
which science develops ideas from other fields of knowledge. These
adaptations do not assume that the two fields of knowledge, science and
the field ideas are being adapted from, are the same or that the composers
of the Eshu poem, for example, had in mind the ideas and applications
developed by the scientists.

The poem suggests styles of thinking that Inakonta and Yu have allowed to
guide their own reflections. This has been possible even though the
scientists do not have full understanding of why the poet composed the
poem the way they did or what the poem means beyond a basic grasp of its
meaning and the methods through which this meaning is evoked..

This basic understanding consists in seeing the poem as relating to a deity

associated with transformation. Transformation is a fundamental quality
of the cosmos enabled in Yoruba Orisa cosmology by a cosmic force called
“ase”, accessible to all forms of existence, as described in Yoruba: Nine
Centuries of African Art and Thought, edited by Rowland Abiodun et al, and
particularly associated with Eshu as a bridge between every aspect of the
universe, as described by by Awo Fa'lokun Fatunmbi in “Esu Elegba: Ifa
and the Spirit of the Divine Messenger”.

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Thus, thinking metaphorically, the poetic transformations of time have
been developed by the scientists in terms of non-linearity, of space in
relation to spatial inversion and of biology in terms of ontological
conversion, three subfields of myth computing. The entire scope of these
developments at the intersection of information systems and artificial
intelligence is subsumed by cosmological exploration, integrating
phenomena at various scales of attention.

In developing applications from other human creations, Inakonta and Yu’s

innovations also belong to the broader field of Artefact Computing,
computing that takes inspiration from human creations. This form of
computing may be contrasted with natural computing, computing inspired
by nature. Artefact computing is also different from what are known as
computational artefacts, one meaning of which is “anything created by a
human using a computer”, as described at the University of Rhode Island’s
website on “Computing as a Creative Activity and Computational Artifacts”.
Artifact computing in the context of inspiration by non-technological
structures is represented by computer scientist Philip Emeagwali’s
descriptions in his Guardian, Nigeria interview with Reuben Abati, of his
work as using

spatial interactions from [ various ] cultures to change my perspective

and frame of reference for designing supercomputers. For example, I
examine the weaving of baskets and textiles; the construction of
bridges, terraces and houses; and the layout of fields and gardens.

Inakonta and Yu, on the other hand, have not drawn their inspiration from
material forms such as baskets, textiles, bridges and houses in developing
myth computing, but from semi-abstract structures represented by
mythological ideas and images expressed in words.
Methods of Applying Myth Dynamics in Computing
Three methods of deploying myth dynamics in computing
are demonstrated by the following adaptation from Batel Dinur’s
"Interweaving Architecture and Ecology : A Theoretical Perspective”, an
influential text in this transdisciplinary field:
• Metaphorically – using myth principles as a general concept that can
enhance the meaning of computing. The central concept here is a strategy
of transposition, presenting cosmological processes in terms of
personification and narrative, as in Awo Falokun Fatunmbi’s “Obatala: Ifa
and the Chief of the Spirit of the White Cloth”.
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 • Analogically – certain aspects of myth principles can be compared to
certain aspects in computing and by this reveal differences and
similarities.
• Literally – a direct analysis and transformation of myth principles into
computing systems. This relates particularly to specific myths, as in the
Eshu poem.
Sub-Fields of Myth Computing
Temporal non-linearity, spatial inversion, ontological conversion and
cosmological exploration are among the applications being explored by
researchers in myth computing.
Temporal Non-Linearity
Temporal non-linearity involves efforts to reshape time by affecting the
past from the present or constructing the future through actions in the
present that do not seem to have direct connection with their future effects.
It draws on Albert Einstein’s deductions about the non-linearity of time as
well as on ideas from quantum mechanics. A successful experiment was
conducted in sending an object into the past. The success of the experiment
was ascertained through the location of that object at a spot where no one
had placed it in the present, the object simply materializing at that spot
twenty-four hours after the conclusion of the experiment.
A far reaching goal of this field is that of exploring the simultaneity of past,
present and future. It proceeds from the hypothesis that the division of
time into a linear flow from the past, to the present and the future, is not
absolute but is an outcome of the positioning of human perception in the
context of physical space.
Inakonta and Yu describe the continental African and Diaspora
African cosmological symbol of the crossroads evoking the intersection of
various dimensions of space and time and their integration in infinity, as
central to inspiring this sub-field of myth computing.

The point of intersection of horizontal and vertical lines in symbolic

depictions of crossroads is also understood as the cognitive centre evoking
human understanding in unifying various possibilities of knowledge. All
these interpretive contexts are conflated in the figure of Eshu as the
embodiment and enabler of the convergence of contrastive forms of being
and of knowing.

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Norma Rosen's "Chalk Iconography in Olokun Worship" and Ifalola
Sanchez’ blog post of November 14, 2007, “Discourse On Meaning and
Symbology in the Ifa Divination System” at his blog Ifa Yesterday, Ifa Today,
Ifa Tomorrow are central sources for these ideas.
Thus, without addressing belief in the literal existence of mythic forms such
as Eshu, Inakonta and Yu are able to distil the ideas associated with the
mythology in the context of their scientific knowledge, suggesting to them
novel ways of exploring possibilities of existence through scientific enquiry.
The scientists thus join others, such as Malcolm Allen, then Chief Executive
Officer, British Psychoanalytic Council, interpreting the state of his field in
terms of the crossroads of possibility associated with Eshu in "Renewal or
Retreat? Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Crossroads”. in adapting the
rich possibilities of ideational stimulation represented by Eshu's
iconography, the visual forms associated with him, such as the crossroads,
as well as his oriki- Yoruba praise poetry, as in the example quoted above, a
rich mine of images and ideas relevant to a broad range of possibilities.
In presenting, at a 2010 conference of the British Psychoanalytic Council,
an appraisal of where the psychoanalytic community is strategically,
what its prospects are, and what we now have to put in place to face the
future…the insuperable challenges and obstacles that psychoanalytic
psychotherapy faces [ as well as ] the enormous strengths and
resources – intellectual and clinical – that we can bring to meeting
[these] undeniably huge challenges
Allen, referencing the art historian John Pemberton, described the
association of the crossroads with Eshu, “a mischievous and creative spirit “
as embodying those possibilities of that period in the community’s history,
on account of Eshu’s description as presiding over crossroads, “a
disturbing and disconcerting place but also where one recognizes truth or
makes life-changing decisions”, concluding “as we embark on that process
of strategic thinking, as we contemplate, perhaps with trepidation, the
roads ahead, may Eshu-Elegba, the creative spirit of the crossroads, guide
us to ingenuity and wisdom”.
Spatial Inversion
Spatial inversion involves the expansion or compression of space by
reshaping space through access to a fourth dimension enveloping the
conventional three dimensions. Using the methods developed by this idea,
any space can, for a limited time, be expanded or contracted, thus reducing
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a large house, for example, to the equivalent of the size of one room in that
house when it was its former size. The process can also be reversed to
either expand a small space into a much larger space or reverse the process
so the space may be reshaped to its original state.
This field draws from fractal geometry, particularly as developed by Benoit
Mandelbrot and the presence in various cultures, such as in Islamic tiling
and architecture, described by Sebastian Prange in his report on Peter Lu’s
work in “The Tiles of Infinity” of what have come to be known as fractals,
as described of African cultural expressions by Ron Eglash in his African
fractals website and book and by David Mumford and his co-writers, of the
Buddhist image of the Net of Indra in Indra’s Pearl’s : The Vision of Felix
Klein, in which similar structures may be theoretically expanded into
infinity without repeating any form or compressed into a small space
through reverse permutations, following the process of compression to its
roots in the most basic unit which had begun the process of expansion.
Inakonta and Yu particularly credit Ifa’s information management system
as suggesting clues to correlating ideas in information theory and
organisation in relation to spatio-temporal configurations as significantly
contributing to inspiring the field of spatial inversion in myth computing.
Ifa’s information system, the odu ifa, is organised in terms of a sequence of
permutations that expands an original single unit into two hundred and
fifty five units which are in turn compressible to the originating single unit.
This field also demonstrates the promise of actualising Stephen Hawking’s
vision in A Brief History of Time, of a Unified Field Theory, a few basic
principles demonstrating the laws that shape the dynamic complexity of
the cosmos.
Ontological Conversion
Ontological conversion involves developing new forms through a synthesis
between organic and inorganic life. These novel forms are understood in
terms of intersecting fields of energy. These fields of energy are expressed
as dynamic structures of information.
This sub-discipline of myth computing is based on a perception of the
universe as a dynamic network of actual and potential connections
between agents. These agents are described as interdependent sentient
forms that shape and interpret the data configured environment. In doing
this, they navigate and generate emergent phenomena.
Central to this process is the understanding that “the distinction between
the artificial and the natural must lie not in their source – human or not –
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but in their characteristics, in the way they relate to the world around
them” as summed up by Virginia Postrel in The Future and its Enemies: The
Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress quoted in Batel
Dinur’s “Interweaving Architecture” and Ecology”.
A goal the research program is driving towards is that of complementing
hardware centred space travel, travel using machines, through motion
purely through consciousness, in which the mind and the environment in
which it moves are blended as aspects of a whole, making time disappear
since the distance between the mind and the space it wishes to explore
would be eliminated.
The ideas underlying this subfield are stimulated by connections between
the conception of sentient information systems in Ifa, particularly as
outlined by babalawo-adept in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa-Joseph
Ohomina, conceptions from the Hindu yantra theory and ideas from
reflexive architecture as developed by Chris Groothuzien.
Odu Ifa
The odu ifa, the central information system of Ifa, are perceived as a
harmonious embodiment of what would conventionally be understood as
contrastive ontological categories. They are signified, at different levels of
expression, by a spatial configuration, a graphic inscription, a numerical
description and a literary corpus. The odu are thus understood as being
both human cultural constructions and as transcending, in their origin and
significance, the cultural forms in terms of which they are visualised, the
further reaches of their nature largely unknown to their human
collaborators.
In a personal communication with Inakonta and Yu in the course of the
scientists’ efforts to stimulate new ideas in their research through
exploring diverse cognitive forms from various cultures, Ohomina
described the odu ifa as metaphysically primal sentient agents:
The odu are the names of spirits whose origin we do not know. We
understand only a small fraction of their significance. They are the
brains behind the efficacy of whatever we prepare. They are the
spiritual names of all phenomena in existence, whether abstract or
concrete: plants, animals, human beings, the elements. Abstractions
such as love, hate, truth, falsehood; concrete forms such as rain,
water, land, air and the stars; situations such as celebrations, conflict
and ceremonies: all these are represented in spiritual terms by the
various Odu.
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The odu are thus understood as sentient and agentive identities. They are
symbolised in terms of human cultural constructions represented by
spatial, graphic, numerical and literary symbols which are conventionally
identified as lifeless forms, their value deriving from the meanings
attributed to them by their human users. Paradoxically, they are also
perceived as sentient agents of comprehensive meaning, whose ontological
essence is non-human in origin, and the significance of whom their human
collaborators have only a very limited grasp, their encyclopaedic
identification of the essential nature of all possibilities of existence being
only a small aspect of their significance.

Ifa thus foregrounds questions of the relationship between humanly

created cultural forms and the human mind, one of the central inspirations
for the development of artificial intelligence. This question resonates with
particular force in relation to modes of being created by human ingenuity
but which demonstrate an intelligence that enables them act with what
seems a degree of independence from human direction, as in the Matrix
film series which explores speculative relationships between artificial
intelligence, human consciousness, the material world and cyberspace.

Odu ifa’s contribution to myth computing has been to stimulate ideas

emerging from considering relationships between its constituent units,
understood as autonomous but interdependent sentient agents in dynamic
interaction with each other and the human mind, the creator of the
structures through which the nature and activity of these agents is
interpreted.
Hindu Yantra Theory
Hindu yantra theory, filtered through Swami Veda Bharati’s explanation of
the school of Sri Vidya in “What is Shri Vidya?” , his conception of sentient
energy being significantly stimulating to Inakonta and Yu, is based on a
perception of the source of the cosmos as consciousness and of the cosmos
as constituted by structures of consciousness organised in geometric forms
known as yantras.
Reflexive Architecture
Reflexive architecture, as described by the Architectural Design journal
2002 special issue on Reflexive Architecture, develops a vision of
architecture which looks
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 beyond the present perception of buildings as static architectural
objects [instead working towards] architecture that is … highly
responsive and intelligent…able to translate and connect to its
contextual and environmental surroundings at a new level, while also
operating in three or more spaces simultaneously.
A central influence of reflexive architecture on myth computing has come
from the work of Chris Groothuzien, in his creations as a member
of AVATAR, Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research
Group created by Neil Spiller at University College, London and now at the
University of Greenwich.
At the Friday November 19, 2004 UCL News website announcement, “New
Bartlett Research Group”, Groothuzien is quoted as proposing architectural
forms demonstrating:

potential interaction between synthetic and organic life… autonomous

agents that shape and interpret the data-saturated environment,
providing portraits of intersubjectivity that are shared between
artificial entities and ourselves. …an exploration and interaction …
designed to enhance curiosity in the face of emergent phenomena,
which is by definition beyond our control.
Correlating Ohomina’s Odu Ifa Thought and the Reflexive
Architecture of Chris Groothuzien

Groothuzien’s architectural projections and Ohomina’s understanding of

odu ifa resonate with conceptions of abstract agents such as Platonic
Forms, with ideas of mutually shaping fields of possibility in complexity
theory and with speculative conceptions in cyber-architecture and artificial
intelligence.

Recognizing this convergence, the founders of myth computing conjunct

Ohomina’s ideas on odu ifa with Groothuzien’s architectural projections in
terms of the following conceptual montage:

The odu ifa are sentient forms whose origin we do not know;
autonomous but interdependent agents, that shape and
interpret the data-saturated environment, providing
portraits of intersubjectivity that are shared between artificial
entities and ourselves, dramatizing interaction between
synthetic and organic life, provoking exploration and

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 interaction that enhance curiosity in the face of emergent
phenomena, which, by definition, are beyond our control.
They are agents, elements of a system, sharing information,
adapting and evolving with a changing environment,
developing intricate inter-relationships. We understand only
a small fraction of their significance. They are the brains
behind the efficacy of whatever we prepare. They are the
essential identities of all phenomena in existence, whether
abstract or concrete: plants, animals, human beings, the
elements; all kinds of situations; abstractions such as love,
hate, truth, falsehood; concrete forms such as rain, water,
land, air and the stars; situations such as celebrations,
conflict and ceremonies: all these are represented in spiritual
terms by the various odu.
This juxtaposition of ideas from diverse sources, correlative with various
disciplines from the Africa, Asia and the West, foregrounds ontological and
epistemological questions centred in questions of agency in the
constitution of knowledge, questions focused through enquiry on
relationships between cognitive agents, cognitive objects and cognitive
processes.
Cognitive agents are the knowing subject, cognitive objects are the focus of
cognition and cognitive processes include the cognitive instruments
through which knowledge is gained, how they are employed and the
experiences undergone by the cognitive agent in the process of employing
these instruments.
Such questions emerge in relation to the convergence between cognitive
science and artificial intelligence on the nature of consciousness, in
epistemology and metaphysics, on abstract agents, as these latter are
conceived in Platonic thought, in the philosophy of mathematics and in
divinatory epistemology, such as in Ifa and the Chinese I Ching.
Groothuzien’s and Ohomina’s ideas converge in a conception of cognitive
instruments, means of gaining knowledge, as demonstrating
intersubjectivity, as Groothuzien put it, with human beings. These ideas
were made concrete for the researchers by what is now known as Hard
Animism, a conception pervasive in African cosmologies, as described by
John Mbiti in African Religions and Philosophy and represented by the
Yoruba “ase” and the Igbo “ike” , the latter depicted by Chinua Achebe in
‘The Igbo World and its Art’ and correlative with related ideas in Asian,
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particularly Indian thought, in the concept of Shakti, , that the cosmos is
suffused with energy that enables agency for everything that exists, from
rocks to ideas, a complexity of response to environment suggesting degrees
of consciousness.
Even though this animistic conception is yet unproven, it proves useful in
designing information systems based on the assumption of its being an
accurate description of reality. It has enabled the development of
disembodied human cognition, consciousness in action outside the human
body, interacting with solid and non-solid forms in space, shaping such
phenomena as weather conditions by interaction with the material forms
enabling those conditions.
Cosmological Exploration
Cosmological exploration in myth computing employs computing systems
in simulating the birth of the cosmos in order to understand its origins and
its underlying qualities.
This strategy proceeds from the hypothesis of information, understood in
terms of a convergence between potential knowledge and the mind, as
underlying reality. This idea is derived from a conjunction between three
major bodies of knowledge. These are physicist Archibald Wheeler’s
speculative description of information organised in binary units as the
basis of reality and similar ideas in Gates’ Adinkra system in mathematical
physics which has binary codes embedded in its description of the
foundations of reality, a parallel described in Gates’ talk, "Will Evolution
and Information Theory Provide the Fundamentals of Physics?". This
correlation between Wheeler’s idea and supersymmetric Adinkra is
conjoined in myth computing with related conceptions in binary structured
information analysis and prediction systems such as Ifa and the Chinese I
Ching.
The binary unit projected as fundamental in this hypothesis of information
as underlying reality is that of a relationship between the quantum nothing
and the cosmos as an emergent phenomenon. How does the cosmos
emerge from beyond the boundary of human knowledge represented by
the quantum nothing? Through a balance between chaos and order
representable in terms of binary codes, this hypothesis suggests.
This aspect of myth computing is being carried forward using a
modification of the ARGO-Algorithm to Reconstruct Galaxy-Traced
Overdensities, a computer program for cosmic cartography developed at
the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), building on the work of
Michael Norman of the University of California, San Diego, Robert Harkness
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of the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC), and Brian O'Shea as a
postdoctoral fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in their
simulation of the evolution of the entire universe in terms of its 1.5 billion
light years of existence, from just after the Big Bang, the explosion held by
scientists to have brought the universe into being, up till the present day,
by allowing the cosmologists to travel backwards in time and view the
history of the universe through studying the formation, growth, and
evolution of clusters of galaxies, the largest gravitationally bound
structures in the universe.
Transecting Disciplines
Inakonta and Yu, the founders of myth computing, may be seen as
furthering an agenda that has been critical in every period in history, in
every place, famously articulated in terms of Western culture by CP. Snow’s
The Two Cultures, the unification of the imagination centred arts and the
ratiocinative centred sciences.
Toyin Falola argues for this vision as critical in The Humanities in Africa,
using the example of the value of correlating Ifa and science, a particularly
germane illustration on account of the scope of ideas and questions such a
convergence evokes. This is suggested, for one, by the relationship between
the idea of sentient abstractions identified with odu ifa and abstract agents
in mathematics and the questions resonant in philosophy of mathematics,
philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion as to whether or not
mathematical forms, and by extension, mathematical structures, such as
the odu ifa, are discoveries by the human mind, creations by that mind or
coextensive with it.
Adapting a Falola summation in his essay “Ritual Archives” on the value of
cosmological motifs for theory construction, myth computing transects
disciplines, correlates their epistemologies and conjuncts their ontologies,
seeking ever more inclusive and penetrating understanding and the
creation of ever more powerful systems.

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