From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 22:25:20 MST
GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 2/23/00 4:17:57 AM Central Standard Time, sti@cam.org
> writes:
>
> > Statistics show that the average person produces more resources in a
> > lifetime than they consume.
>
> As I've
> described here before, I envision the design of a super-simple
> sat-phone-PC-net terminal with solar and wind-up power. Make hundreds of
> millions of them and distribute them free throughout the Third World. Back
> it up with a distributed volunteer network to run distance-learning
> programs (basic literacy, public hygiene, agriculture, first aid) through
> the sat-net system.
I was following you until we hit the bit about the volunteers. My current
business partner has actually worked out the profit potential from this
scheme, and is sure that there are hundreds of billions of dollars to be
made from project. This was actually the topic of a talk he gave here last
year at our local science fiction convention. Anyway, it would be
sufficiently profitable to pay the people involved, so there is no reason
anyone would have to volunteer. Sure, there would be a BIG start-up cost,
but the same was true of the chunnel and of other Megaprojects. The only
problem is finding a businessman (or worse, a cartel) with enough vison to
bankroll it.
--
Stirling Westrup | Use of the Internet by this poster
sti@cam.org | is not to be construed as a tacit
| endorsement of Western Technological
| Civilization or its appurtenances.
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