[geeks] $100 One Laptop Per Child - grist for the mill

[Brian Dunbar]

Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Sat, 18 Nov 2006 @ 16:44 -0800, William Kirkland said:
> 
>> Education *is* important, though there are basic needs which have  
>> priority, just so that the potential students will learn. Until those  
>> needs have been addressed, one may find a tree would make a better  
>> student.
> 
> I hate to say it after criticizming Dvorak, but he called this one
> right, at least partly.
> 
>>From what I understand in talking to people who've worked in africa,
> almost no one would afford a $100 laptop, and few villages could come
> close to affording a $300 network link.
> 
> The vast majoirty of people there have annual incomes measured in single
> digit US dollars, assuming they have any at all.
> 
> To me, if the people solved their fundamental problems--slavery,
> genocide, civil war, unchecked disease and causes thereof, near total
> lack of national will, and so on--and created a stable civilization,
> they probably would not need anyone's help getting laptops.

It's getting there that is the problem.

I've wondered if a part of the a solution for those places where those
problems are endemic is a reliable power source.

Lacking electricity you burn your forests down to fuel your fires to
cook with.  You have to go sleep at night at dusk.  And so on.

But it's hard to maintain a reliable electrical grid when the incentives
to rip the infrastructure up overwhelm the ability of the locals to
protect it.  Because of slavery, genocide, civil war and etc.

What - and I might be naive - those guys need is a reliable local power
source that does not depend on vulnerable power lines or the cooperation
of people hundreds of kilometers away to supply your power.

Okay, so I know this isn't 'the' solution but it could be 'a' solution.
 I wonder if Solar Power Satellites could supply that need.

Thoughts?


-- 
Brian Dunbar
System Administrator
Liftport - The Space Elevator Company

brian.dunbar at liftport.com
aim: bdunbar1967

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Any other form of existence doesn't interest me.

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