Wednesday, January 10, 2007
as posted to slashdot in response to this: (my comments in italics.)
Why do so many people miss the economics?!?
(Score:3, Insightful)
by A nonymous Coward (7548) * Alter Relationship on Wednesday January 10, @07:59PM (#17549716)
The OLPC can be justified on simple economic grounds.
An OLPC comes with ebook textbooks. The cost of the OLPC is at worst the same as paper textbooks. The OLPC textbooks can be updated as often as necessary instead of being obsolete castoffs, and they are in the native language instead of a foreign language. The child can carry all of them around without weight penalty.
They also provide light from the screen if necessary, and they provide communication with the other OLPCs and with the big wide world. Parents can get medical advice. They can find the best market for their farm goods instead of having to walk ten miles with thir goods and hope they get the best price possible.
The idea that kids can learn about computers is NOT the main goal of OLPC.
These are TOOLS.
-
Don't give your right name, no no no --- Fats Waller
Mod parent up, but let me expand a little. People, maybe even slashdotters, can create content deliverable over the one laptop per child (olpc). "how to build a solar still to provide drinking water, using a recycled trash bag." "how to order child immunizations cheap from a veterinary medicine wholesaler" "how to build a solar oven" "how to use a waterwheel to charge your laptop, distill and pump water, and run a pirate radio station." "seasteading for dummies" "microfinance brokerage services" "how to take back your government" "how to bounty hunt nigerian spammers for the organ trade" "camwhoring for survival" "roomba hacks for desert and jungle" "avoiding hiv and hepatitis"... whatever it is that people want to do "instead" of the 1lpc can be done cheaper/better/faster "with" the 1lpc, at least to the point of having at least one per village. At some point you get diminishing returns, but meanwhile ubiquitous computing keeps getting cheaper smaller smarter, so the transition keeps spreading, and the spontaneously arising networks from the 1lpc help bring the singularity to your neighborhood.
This got an interesting chain of responses:
You have a good point
(Score:1)
by DavidShor (928926) on Wednesday January 10, @11:14PM (#17551812)
(http://logicalpurgatory.blogspot.com/)
But lets be realistic, information transfer has both negative and positive impacts. How long until we see aid workers being lynched because of rumors that the new vaccine is a western plot to make locals impotent?
Until we see Al-Qaeda recruiting third world kids using IM?(The countries they are sending the laptops to are poor but transitioning economies where food and water issues have been figured out, but where were are still serious macro-economic problems. This is where terrorism usually thrives.)
I support the laptop roll out , but I hope someone is planning for these problems.
More discussion.
Why do so many people miss the economics?!?
(Score:3, Insightful)
by A nonymous Coward (7548) * Alter Relationship on Wednesday January 10, @07:59PM (#17549716)
The OLPC can be justified on simple economic grounds.
An OLPC comes with ebook textbooks. The cost of the OLPC is at worst the same as paper textbooks. The OLPC textbooks can be updated as often as necessary instead of being obsolete castoffs, and they are in the native language instead of a foreign language. The child can carry all of them around without weight penalty.
They also provide light from the screen if necessary, and they provide communication with the other OLPCs and with the big wide world. Parents can get medical advice. They can find the best market for their farm goods instead of having to walk ten miles with thir goods and hope they get the best price possible.
The idea that kids can learn about computers is NOT the main goal of OLPC.
These are TOOLS.
-
Don't give your right name, no no no --- Fats Waller
Mod parent up, but let me expand a little. People, maybe even slashdotters, can create content deliverable over the one laptop per child (olpc). "how to build a solar still to provide drinking water, using a recycled trash bag." "how to order child immunizations cheap from a veterinary medicine wholesaler" "how to build a solar oven" "how to use a waterwheel to charge your laptop, distill and pump water, and run a pirate radio station." "seasteading for dummies" "microfinance brokerage services" "how to take back your government" "how to bounty hunt nigerian spammers for the organ trade" "camwhoring for survival" "roomba hacks for desert and jungle" "avoiding hiv and hepatitis"... whatever it is that people want to do "instead" of the 1lpc can be done cheaper/better/faster "with" the 1lpc, at least to the point of having at least one per village. At some point you get diminishing returns, but meanwhile ubiquitous computing keeps getting cheaper smaller smarter, so the transition keeps spreading, and the spontaneously arising networks from the 1lpc help bring the singularity to your neighborhood.
This got an interesting chain of responses:
You have a good point
(Score:1)
by DavidShor (928926)
(http://logicalpurgatory.blogspot.com/)
But lets be realistic, information transfer has both negative and positive impacts. How long until we see aid workers being lynched because of rumors that the new vaccine is a western plot to make locals impotent?
Until we see Al-Qaeda recruiting third world kids using IM?(The countries they are sending the laptops to are poor but transitioning economies where food and water issues have been figured out, but where were are still serious macro-economic problems. This is where terrorism usually thrives.)
I support the laptop roll out , but I hope someone is planning for these problems.
More discussion.
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