[iDC] FW: One Laptop Per Child - MIT/Negroponte Initiative

[davin heckman]

Alexis,

Actually, I agree with you.  Sorry to get you wrong.  I don't think
that technology or money are the root of the problem, though they are
a part.  And I do think that empowerment and dignity are.  If we begin
with a foundation of empowerment and dignity, then things like money,
technology, and knowledge can build on this foundation.

I was responding to the idea that it was somehow wrong or moralistic
to discuss the possible downsides of OLPC.  I think the desire to
assert the utopian aspects of the project serve an important public
relations purpose...  While I tend to support OLPC, I have to respect
the fact that there are people who are much more knowledgeable on the
topic of technology and imperialism, and I have to take their
criticism seriously.  My own limited experience with technology is
that it is not a "good" thing....  it is a site of conflict that
requires struggle and reflection in order to put it to ethical use.

And, if the introduction of cheap laptops simply raises the threshold
for subsistence, then I would have to say it would be a bad thing.
Like many, I want reassurances that these are going to be a net plus
for people.

As someone who is interested in literature and media, I think these
laptops might actually move us towards a system of representation (and
I am talking here about art, journalism, scholarship, and programming)
that more fully expresses the experience of being human in the 21st
century.  But after the laptops arrive, it will require people
fighting to protect free and fair expression, both in a local sense
and a global sense.  We have to fight to make the web free and
democratic to do this.

Davin

On Jan 3, 2008 6:12 AM, Alexis Turner <subbies at redheadedstepchild.org> wrote:
> I don't know, nor do I think we can measure in advance, that any technology can