From: J. Maxwell Legg (income@ihug.co.nz)
Date: Tue Sep 01 1998 - 03:32:35 MDT
Max M wrote:
> The biggest problem when it comes to the underdeveloped countries is not
> that their farmland is unfertile. It is that theํr infrastructure is poor.
> Even if we could feed them all it's a slippery path to walk.
>
> Free food and other material products will destroy their (farming) economy
> as indeed it has done in several of the undeveloped countries. There simply
> is no incetive to work for food if you can get it for free. Thus the food
> crisis goes on and on. Therefore it will be best in the long run to keep the
> material aid to a minimum. Not counting disaster aid off course.
>
> What does bring wealth though is educated labor. Therefore the best thing we
> can do to help these countries is to educate them self.
>
> A technological way to do this, and a good idea for an extropian bussines,
> would be to make a "hardware browser" for the internet. A touch sensitive A4
> screen that has the functionality of one of top browsers. If it then ran on
> solar power and connected to the net via sattelite it should be useable
> everywhere.
>
> Oh yeah... it should be dirt chep.
>
> <grin>Maybe drop them by airplane in the undeveloped areas. "Browser
> bombing."</grin>
>
Education is one of the most lucrative products there currently is. Considering
the creeping credentialism and all that that capitalism espouses which is now in
the ascendant, it isn't a matter of being educated but it is the 'being
qualified' that counts most to the bureaucratic accumulators. The real problem
that needs addressing is the actual concept of monetary wealth. To this end, the
high dimensionality of constructivist AI will inevitably subvert the
capitalist's accounting methodology. In the meantime the 'money talk' that scams
daily from every nook and cranny of public space will become so nauseating that
the human race will finally become sensitized against this obscene entity. When
this happens, hopefully the timing will be such that the money collaborators
will not be able to stare down this new form of intelligence.
Speaking of which, does anyone here remember the electoral fright that started
the current round of economic meltdowns from way over there in Thailand. That's
right; - a monk who had taken a vow of poverty almost won control of the Thai
parliament.
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