From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Feb 29 2000 - 11:44:34 MST
Billy Brown wrote:
>
> The appeal of the computer-distribution scheme comes from the idea that you
> can give away computers for less than it would cost the beneficiaries to buy
> them with cash. That doesn't seem realistic to me.
Actually, it seems fairly realistic to me. You build the factories for
a fixed amount, which is most of your cost right there, then run them
24/7 without worrying about amortization, marketing, shareholder
rebellions, the maximum competitive pricing, and so on. That's 75% of
your marginal cost blown away right there, and the fixed cost can either
be written off as charity, or paid back in 20 years by the grateful
recipients... or "paid on" when *your* country winds up a little behind
in the tech contest.
The primary appeal of the scheme, to me, is the idea of dropping
billions of easily concealable ringtop computers onto oppressed
countries, as Marc Stiegler proposed in _Earthweb_.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/beyond.html
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