Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Side Effects of $100 Laptop
Here is a link to the laptop the people at MIT (with help from various other groups) have been designing. The purpose of these is to be able to give them to children in poverty-stricken regions of the world, so they can get a leg up.
While the benefits of education and its potential are excellent, some serious problems I see with this:
1. I hope this isn't part of some ploy to bring them into the "first world" with a taste of misinformation (project partially sponsored by News Corp, makers of Fox News).
2. Many of the world's poor are still dealing with basic needs like food and medicine.
3. These computers are going to give them a flood of information, and will potentially inflict a new version of hell upon them. By this, I mean, they will be given a window to look into the world of those in countries/cultures who are doing just great while they're living on pennies a day. Much like bringing a homeless person into a fancy restaurant and letting them sit in the corner to watch you eat!
A good solution I'd propose is that in addition to bringing these computers, we better bring a heckuva lot more. Whatever justice exists in the world needs to be brought out before these laptops.
Still, even if the justice doesn't happen before then, this is probably a good thing nonetheless. It's empowering, and will enlighten these children to the real state of the world. Once they start plastering posts on internet forums everywhere to note the disparity between "ooh i can't get one bad pixel on my plasma screen to work" and "i've been eating rice and vitamins for two weeks" perhaps some good leveling will come. Then again I'm a dreamer, but not the only one.
music: "I hear that train a comin', a comin' round the bend. I ain't seen the sun shine since I don't know when."
colors: pink orange and yellow
mood: so-so
thoughts: given above. i'm going to change the order around here so thoughts come first since that's usually what i'm thinking when i come to this page to update. funny, i wouldn't come to this page just to tell you what colors i'm thinking about. then again, sometimes i am listening to such a good song that i want to share it...
chant/prayer/mantra:
We live in a world of plenty. Let's spread it around for real.
Link of the day: Rock Feet
pax hominibus,
joel
While the benefits of education and its potential are excellent, some serious problems I see with this:
1. I hope this isn't part of some ploy to bring them into the "first world" with a taste of misinformation (project partially sponsored by News Corp, makers of Fox News).
2. Many of the world's poor are still dealing with basic needs like food and medicine.
3. These computers are going to give them a flood of information, and will potentially inflict a new version of hell upon them. By this, I mean, they will be given a window to look into the world of those in countries/cultures who are doing just great while they're living on pennies a day. Much like bringing a homeless person into a fancy restaurant and letting them sit in the corner to watch you eat!
A good solution I'd propose is that in addition to bringing these computers, we better bring a heckuva lot more. Whatever justice exists in the world needs to be brought out before these laptops.
Still, even if the justice doesn't happen before then, this is probably a good thing nonetheless. It's empowering, and will enlighten these children to the real state of the world. Once they start plastering posts on internet forums everywhere to note the disparity between "ooh i can't get one bad pixel on my plasma screen to work" and "i've been eating rice and vitamins for two weeks" perhaps some good leveling will come. Then again I'm a dreamer, but not the only one.
music: "I hear that train a comin', a comin' round the bend. I ain't seen the sun shine since I don't know when."
colors: pink orange and yellow
mood: so-so
thoughts: given above. i'm going to change the order around here so thoughts come first since that's usually what i'm thinking when i come to this page to update. funny, i wouldn't come to this page just to tell you what colors i'm thinking about. then again, sometimes i am listening to such a good song that i want to share it...
chant/prayer/mantra:
We live in a world of plenty. Let's spread it around for real.
Link of the day: Rock Feet
pax hominibus,
joel
