[extropy-chat] Maximising Human Potential : Education : Toys

[Adrian Tymes]

Again, sorry for the late reply.

--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury at aeiveos.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 11 May 2004, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> > Paraphrasing from another source...
> >
> > Solar-rechargable, long-range (satellite,
> preferably)
> > PDA terminals that can connect to the Internet,
> [snip]
> 
> > Of course, this would be incredibly subversive to
> many
> > third world governments, and therefore likely
> > confiscated on sight along with food. [snip more]
> 
> Interesting suggestion.

I couldn't recall where I heard it from; I thought it
might have been you, in fact.

> N. Korea's population is 22 million, say 20% in the
> 6-18
> year old range and you have ~4.5 million.  Say that
> many
> PDAs mass produced and delivered for $50+/each and
> you are
> talking something like $250 million.

Or deliver just a fraction.  Even 1%, distributed
among the countryside (where it'd be most needed, and
accounting for less than 100% of the population),
counting on shared use (and the fact that, even among
the target audience, there will be many who personally
reject it, but hopefully they'll at least give their
unit to someone else).  And in those quantities, you
could probably drop costs below $50 per.

> Compare that
> with
> the cost of $6+ billion/year to keep ~35,000 troops
> in S.
> Korea, or the $2-4 billion/month(!) to keep ~120,000
> troops
> in Iraq.  We could be dropping PDAs/Satellite phone
> combinations
> and ubiquitous solar powered WiFi networks all over
> the countries
> on a quarterly basis (so what if the regime
> confiscates them --
> we are just going to provide more of them in a few
> months...).

Or in Iraq, just handing them out.  In earlier months
of the occupation, it was pointed out that the regime
which had the most popular support (US official, vs.
various sects) was the one most successful at bringing
basic services to the population.  So how about, "We
don't have the resources to build your pipes - we keep
getting shot at - but here's how to build it yourself,
and rebuild it if someone blows it up."  Once armed
with the right information, most villages could and
probably would spare a few mens' honest days labor so
that everyone had clean drinking water.  It's the
same principle behind why there's such a fuss today
about Iraqis policing themselves.