One Laptop Per Child: Divining Rod for Genius
The One Laptop Per Child project is going to revolutionize computer science.
For those who don't know, the OLPC project is close to commercializing a simple, usable laptop for children in the developing world which will be available for countries to buy in bulk for around $100 per machine. Among the coolest things about these machines is that they will all be linked together via a wireless mesh network, allowing information and improvements to spread across the network.
[More details about the project are available here.]
Another amazing thing about the laptop is that pushing one button in nearly any of the laptop's programs brings up the source code for the application and allows the user to alter it. This is absolutely going to change the world.
Genius, in any field, is a numbers game. Some vanishingly small percentage of people in any population are (or are potentially) extraordinarily gifted in any given field. One of the key advantages that developed economies have over developing ones is developed economies tend to surface and leverage these talented people at far higher rates than developing ones. A musical prodigy born in Chicago or Tokyo is far less likely to starve, die of cholera, or find himself forced by necessity into becoming a manual laborer than one born in Sao Paolo.
The amazing thing about the OLPC project is that potential programming savants in the developing world are going to surface themselves by making dramatic improvements to the OLPC software and then sharing them with their peers via the network.
And we, along with every computer science department and major technology corporation, are going to be able to identify these geniuses by literally watching for software innovations and then tracing them back to their computers of origin.
I guarantee that we citizens of both the developed AND developing world are going to benefit from bringing these savants into the globalized economy.
For those who don't know, the OLPC project is close to commercializing a simple, usable laptop for children in the developing world which will be available for countries to buy in bulk for around $100 per machine. Among the coolest things about these machines is that they will all be linked together via a wireless mesh network, allowing information and improvements to spread across the network.
[More details about the project are available here.]
Another amazing thing about the laptop is that pushing one button in nearly any of the laptop's programs brings up the source code for the application and allows the user to alter it. This is absolutely going to change the world.
Genius, in any field, is a numbers game. Some vanishingly small percentage of people in any population are (or are potentially) extraordinarily gifted in any given field. One of the key advantages that developed economies have over developing ones is developed economies tend to surface and leverage these talented people at far higher rates than developing ones. A musical prodigy born in Chicago or Tokyo is far less likely to starve, die of cholera, or find himself forced by necessity into becoming a manual laborer than one born in Sao Paolo.
The amazing thing about the OLPC project is that potential programming savants in the developing world are going to surface themselves by making dramatic improvements to the OLPC software and then sharing them with their peers via the network.
And we, along with every computer science department and major technology corporation, are going to be able to identify these geniuses by literally watching for software innovations and then tracing them back to their computers of origin.
I guarantee that we citizens of both the developed AND developing world are going to benefit from bringing these savants into the globalized economy.
Labels: genius, OLPC, One Laptop Per Child
posted by Moses Kagan at
8:02 PM
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