whats next? a fake life size cut out image of a doctor with a smartphone attached to it for a speaker?
its sad that people have to die because they don't have access to the technology that's not that expensive and readily available in the "developed countries".
And now we have to come up with some pathetic paper gizmos to justify our actions? Are we really that developed? Seems to me that we are going backwards...
I'm not really sure what you are trying to say here. If you have a better solution to centrifuge availability than a 20c one made out of paper, please enlighten us.
yes i have a better solution - kill one of those multibillion military projects and redirect the money to buy lifesaving medical equipment to the places that need it. equip research facilities with equipment and provide local training.
Those expensive medical machines require a lot of infrastructure to operate properly. You could get a machine there, but you likely couldn't provide it clean and reliable power without additional equipment and technicians to maintain it. Bootstrapping infrastructure is stupendously hard and expensive (and is a huge measure of a country's wealth - a lot of the US wealth is tied up in structural infrastructure like power lines, roads, plants, etc). It's a generational process taking decades to bootstrap.
All the while that is getting built people need help now, and this clever adaptation of a toy fills that niche. Eventually they'll have access to the more advanced modern wonders, but for now this can help people almost immediately.
Exactly. One of the things the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project initially ignored was the infrastructure needed, such as electricity and internet access.
The founder, Nicholas Negroponte went on tear around the world claiming to have saved millions of children and being the father of tablet computing. He even talked about throwing OLPCs out of helicopters on to those brown and black masses. Even claimed that mothers would be better off getting a laptop than subsidized food. I recall he shat on some reporter who had the audacity to quote UNDP analysis that showed spending on lunch-at-school programs had far more impact than spending on teacher technology.
I'm not sure, but I think pg314 is making reference to the hand crank that could be used to power the laptop. I don't think it was initially included in the design (I may be wrong on that). I also heard rumor it wasn't a smashing success as a power supply, but it was so long ago that I don't remember the details terribly well.
I'm actually far more optimistic these days about tech in difficult areas. The computing power (and screens!) we can get out of just a small battery is phenomenal compared to OLPC's time.
I'm no longer really following what OLPC does, but as far as I know that hasn't changed. Other loosely associated organisations like e.g. OLE Nepal (olenepal.org) are addressing that, though.
I did not meet any Negroponte fans out in the field.
So you're criticizing the situation that makes this invention such an improvement, not the invention itself? I certainly understand that, but your comments on first reading to me (and probably to other readers) appear to be criticizing the invention itself, which I and other readers vehemently disagree with.
And what happens if the people I vote for, who are supposed to fix this situation, don't win the election? Should I just sit around for a couple more election cycles and do nothing?
Paper Centrifuge s seems like one of many reasonable stopgaps until your better solution is realized. It'd be sad if we let people die simply because we looked down on practical solutions for not being high-tech enough.
"Expensive" is relative, and the technology has extra costs outside of itself that have been paid in some parts of the world, but not in others. In a part of the world where electricity may as well be unobtainium, that heavy, carefully-calibrated, $1000 centrifuge isn't much better than the scrap value of the metal it's made from (while still being obscenely, prohibitively expensive for the people it would help).
> justify our actions
Who's talking about justification, besides you? There isn't anything to justify.
> Are we really that developed?
We've got shinier toys, if you want to call that "developed". We haven't improved upon the human race itself, if that's what you mean. Humans are naturally selfish and tribal. Society shifts tribal boundaries, and social structures like government can force selfishness into a longer-term view, but that's about all.
its sad that people have to die because they don't have access to the technology that's not that expensive and readily available in the "developed countries".
And now we have to come up with some pathetic paper gizmos to justify our actions? Are we really that developed? Seems to me that we are going backwards...