Understanding of Digital Vs Analogue

By Kevin Amenya

The latest argument about the need for a younger generation of leaders in Kenya has prompted Kenyans to search for the deeper meaning and difference between analogue and digital leadership.

The agitators of generational change argue that they are well versed with the current issues faced by Kenyans thus branding themselves as digital generation.

They are calling for the older generation, whom they refer to as analogue to vacate office.

Here is my analysis from an engineering perspective;

Digital signals used in transmission are always passed through a digital signal processing component or device. In a lay mans language, all digital signal are usually converted to analogue signals by set boxes.

Thus the common man cannot understand the digital signal and hence the need for the digital signal to be converted to analogue signal. This shows that in digital form the signals are useful to experts only but in their analogue form they are useful to both experts and the common mwananchi.

This is the main reason why the shift from analogue to digital television sets has been postponed due to the expense of acquiring the small digital to analogue converter boxes.

Thus the young Turks in their argument stand corrected since we still need analogue leaders.

The writer is an engineering student and a blogger at kevocs.blogspot.com