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Bridging the Digital Divide With PCtvt?
maddu writes "Dr. Raj Reddy, a pioneering researcher in artificial intelligence and a
professor at Carnegie Mellon University, plans to unveil his new project, called the PCtvt, later this year - it's a $250 wirelessly
networked personal computer intended for the four billion people around
the world who live on less than $2,000 a year, according to the NYT (free reg. req.) He says his device can find a market in developing countries,
particularly those with large populations of people who cannot read,
because it can be controlled by a simple TV remote control and can
function as a television, telephone and videophone." We've previously covered the somewhat conceptually related Simputer.
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Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
... maybe they should spend their money on food and birth control? I mean, what good is the 'net when you have 8 kids hungry at home? Seriously, the net is a wonderful tool but it's not going to magically transform a shantytown into a utopia.
I see this, time and time again. It appears to be sound reasoning: Why invest in XYZ information technology when they're going hungry?
The answer is astonishingly simple - Information is the key to finding out how to feed those hungry kids! If the problem is corruption in the local govt, information is the key to coming up with a solution. If the problem is lack of farming technology, where do you think the solution might be found, if not in what is perhaps the largest information repository in the world?
Also, information itself has direct value - how many of us here feed our families by accessing, processing, and developing information?
I feed my 5 hungry kids every day doing this!
When Gutenberg created the printing press 450 years ago, what he really did, in effect, was leverage the power of knowledge, and extend the reach of those who knew to many, many more people that didn't.
The Internet is an extension of that same idea. Why would you deny these people the fruits of YOUR knowledge just because they are lacking in some basic amenity, when that knowledge may well help them solve that deficiency?
Another take: if you have $1,000, and you need to make a $750 house payment, AND a $750 work truck payment, which do you pay?
Answer: Pay the work truck. Using the work truck will help you make the house payment, but using the house will not help you pay for your truck.
These computers are roughly analogous to the work truck...
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
The article fails to mention that Raj Reddy was already on the Microsoft payroll. See this four year old MS article, or poke around where appropriate.
Making the world a better place, one psychotic episode at a time.
- Many infants and children do not reach adulthood
- It's their only source of cheap labor
- It also serves as their retirement plan (Hopefully one or more of the children will do well enough to support them living with them in old age - these are not people with 401Ks who move to a Florida retirement community.)
Anything that can be done to help their (or their children's) education levels is often better than any other source of help they might receive.I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress -J Adams