Give 1, get a whole lot more than you bargained for
I'm totally in favor of OLPC. In principle, I mean.
But has anyone really thought through the implications of seeding the developing world with mesh-connecting, untraceable, untrackable...uh, detonators? Or thought about how long a kid with one of these gadgets is going to hang on to it when confronted by, say, someone willing to swap it for a sack of rice? Or an agreement not to kill their family?
I'm just sayin'.
But has anyone really thought through the implications of seeding the developing world with mesh-connecting, untraceable, untrackable...uh, detonators? Or thought about how long a kid with one of these gadgets is going to hang on to it when confronted by, say, someone willing to swap it for a sack of rice? Or an agreement not to kill their family?
I'm just sayin'.
2 Comments:
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Unknown said...
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- 1:08 PM
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esquiver said...
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- 9:19 PM
Post a CommentPeople involved on the project are certainly talking about the sack-of-rice problem. I haven't heard a really good answer. The best I've heard is that if every child has one, there isn't much of a market. That argument is full of holes, not least that as long as the OLPC device is not available here, there's a rich market...although maybe the new give-one-get-one will help.
I'm not sure what you have in mind when you say 'untraceable, untrackable'. I believe cell phones are, in principle, pretty effective detonators. Do you think the market price of OLPCs will be dramatically lower?
Daniel,
I'm glad to know the sack-of-rice problem is being looked at. As you say, though, I don't think it's in any way fixed by presuming demand will disappear when "every child has one." It's sweet to think that adults are primarily interested in obtaining these for their children. But horribly naive. (Even without the terrorism angle: hm, 50 sacks of rice outlay to become the village's only Ibrahim's Internet Cafe and House of Porn? Sounds like a business plan. And -- does this make me more cynical, or less? -- possibly results in enough of an income stream for Ibrahim to send all his kids to the private boarding school in Capital City.)
Cell phones *are* great detonators. And clearly have a lower market price -- not, I think, that (open) market price is a relevant criterion here. But cell phone communication is easily intercepted and tracked, in a way that Skype and Yahoo chat are not. It's an evolving cat-and-mouse game, to be sure, but there are powerful anonymizing and encryption options with the computer, as well as more opportunities to communicate in inconspicuously coded ways, that would justify greater outlay for that equipment, even where it couldn't be stolen, bribed, or coerced from children.
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