tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6811379.post114425563178111252..comments2023-08-01T10:13:03.257-04:00Comments on In and out of the world: Wired News: Laptop Detractors Shrugged OffDamselFishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11609237417738825530noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6811379.post-1144455351887562622006-04-07T20:15:00.000-04:002006-04-07T20:15:00.000-04:00The $100 computer seems like a misdirected idea. C...The $100 computer seems like a misdirected idea. Can you really see this level of technology being used in a hut made of dung and twigs? We may be able to build the computer but what is its purpose? How will the resource poor family benefit? Sometimes technology is not the answer to the problem, particularly when the basic problem is a lack of food, medicine, and education. Wouldn’t it be better to spend the money to hire teachers to teach reading and arithmetic? Or train medical technicians to deliver basic medication? <BR/><BR/> Why provide an inadequate piece of technology that is almost certain to end up on the junk heap because it doesn’t relate to their needs? Shouldn’t we try to seek out what the local people need. Let’s not assume that we know better than they do?RDRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05268637693917336948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6811379.post-1144288898524991012006-04-05T22:01:00.000-04:002006-04-05T22:01:00.000-04:00Great minds, and all: Paul Currion on humanitarian...Great minds, and all: Paul Currion on humanitarian.info also has reservations about the low-cost laptop's ability to save the world - http://tinyurl.com/zen4h<BR/><BR/>Got into a big inebriated debate with friends recently about whether internet access would be meaningful in the lives of the poor. Ultimately, I think we concluded that we can't possibly know what it would mean to someone in radically different circumstances than ours, and it's possible that it could be very meaningful, but that we also were concerned that this could be just an extension of the idea that 'helping the poor' means 'making them look like us'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6811379.post-1144280460266526762006-04-05T19:41:00.000-04:002006-04-05T19:41:00.000-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.RDRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05268637693917336948noreply@blogger.com