[lug] One laptop per child

[dio2002 at indra.com]

> On Fri, 2006-12-01 at 17:58 -0700, dio2002 at indra.com wrote:
>> If you had a chance to have a clean water or a laptop which would you
>> choose?
>
> Would I choose to drink today or learn to have clean water everyday?
> Knowledge is power.

Seriously.  If i knew the water coming out of my tap was tainted and I had
a choice of clean water or a free laptop, i know which one i'd choose and
it ain't the laptop.

Knowledge IS power.  But it assumes you are alive, safe and allowed (the
right) to use it.

Also, laptops don't necessarily equate to or guarantee knowledge.  There
are plenty of wise people that have never touched a laptop in their life. 
And i know plenty of people that use laptops that aren't necessarily any
wiser for the experience.  They shop more and faster.  Or they download
some cool mp3's, watch a video on youtube or upload another photo gallery.
 Whoopdee doo.  They have 24 hours of entertainment and shopping if they
want it.

But... do they "really" know any more about the world they live in?

>> If you had a chance to have all your rights taken away or a laptop which
>> would you choose?
>
> This must be misspoken, since if I choose the laptop I'd still have my
> rights which doesn't seem to be the point your making.  Assuming you
> mean "you can have your rights OR your laptop", then I don't see how
> having one precludes having the other.

Oops.. i typed that wrong.. you got it right in quotes.

The point wasn't about one precluding the other, it was about which is
more important to your fundamental existence.  If you were living in burma
and you had no human rights making your existence deplorable and the govt
tommorow changes its tune and says you have a choice between full human
rights or a laptop, which one would you choose?  ain't gonna be a laptop. 
it's a no brainer.

And to some degree, one probably does preclude the other. We live in a
fairly free world so it's hard to relate.  But do you think the burmese
govt would allow a free laptop program in their country?  Do you think
they'd let free information flow on the network?  what kind of knowledge
would result?

>> If you were living in the middle of a military zone would you choose a
>> laptop over peace?
>
> Ditto.  You presume that the resources spent in providing easy access to
> knowledge could be used to provide peace instead.  I don't see that as
> likely.  There are plenty of places in this world with both laptops and
> peace.  And there is nothing that can correlate the resources required
> to have both, so there is no reason to think instead of a laptop you'll
> get peace.  You're just as likely to not have the laptop and still not
> have peace.

I don't presume anything.  I said if you had a choice which would you
take? peace or a laptop?  I also said "if it (meaing that laptops) can
help in any way than i'm for it"... so i'm not against the idea at all.

My point is really just how skewed things are.  That you even have to make
these choices really..  You should have clean water and rights and safety.

> OLPC tries to bring knowledge to a world where the lack of it keeps
> children and their families prisoners of poverty and despots.  Is that
> such a bad idea?  Should we wait for clean water and peace before we try
> to bring knowledge of how to keep these things for longer than a day?
>
> IMHO, I don't think so.

No it's not a bad idea.  Again i didn't say it was.  It might just be the
answer or it might be one piece to an incredibly crazy puzzle or it might
be utterly meaningless.

You assume that there is a lack of knowledge already there.  Which assumes
that everyone else knows something they don't.  Knowledge may have nothing
to do with it.  These people may have all the knowledge they need to live
their way of life (subsistence).  They don't want a car or a laptop or
know how to surf the web and watch youtube.  What's wrong with that?

Maybe they just don't have clean water.  Maybe there govt is just corrupt.
 Maybe they live under military rule.  Maybe they don't have access to
land.  It isn't a question of knowledge per se.  It's simply a question of
govt and rule and corporations.  Maybe a first world country is keeping
that country down.

You also assume that access to laptops equates to knowledge and that
having one guarantees the other.  "Knowledge" means different things to
different people.  As i stated earlier, i'm not sure the knowledge of the
average american or any other internet user is any greater because of it. 
You personally may use it for knowledge, but lots of people use it purely
for entertainment and shopping and email.

And in the places that may need "knowledge" the most, especially in the
third world, do you think a despot is going to let free laptops in or
freedom of information flow?