Message-ID: <1.5.4b12.32.19960318185155.00709a04@monmouth.com> Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 13:51:55 -0500 From: Wilbur Streett <mailto:wstreett@MONMOUTH.COM> Subject: Laptops, Technology and the future.. To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
I'm quite amazed that the discussion of Technology Transfer in International Development loves to kick Laptops around with such fervor..On the other hand, to take all of this discussion and attempt to tie it all back to what I think this list is about... (Does anyone know where the FAQ for this list is?)
A laptop is a device that is often defined as technology, it is not, it is a product. Technology is the study of technique, or the way that I like to see it, the application of knowledge to human need.
The original message was about a single person looking for a laptop that would survive a trip in Africa.. I would suggest that that individual check out the studies that the US Army is doing with ruggedization of computers.. but then who can afford to pay what the US Army pays for computers? Anyway, I would suggest two laptops, one in case the other breaks, and a DHL package in order to ship one back for repair if it breaks..
But more to the point, a Laptop isn't technology. A laptop is a product. There are several types of technologies that are represented in the various laptops available in the US computer marketplace, but that doesn't make a Laptop "technology". A laptop computer is a tool, and a tool that was developed mostly by the US and therefore is culturally quite foreign to some other cultures. In some places I would imagine that the appropriate technology is quite far away from computers. I would imagine that there are a lot of Americans that will assume that we can just "slam dunk" our technology and bring those countries up to our standards.
(discussion of side effects of our technology skipped here..)
But our technology doesn't work that well for us, so how do we expect for it to work in places where the people don't understand it and don't have any use for it? (I remember the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, wanting to give a laptop to every homeless person in the US..)
So please, let's move this discussion onto some of the issues that have come up as a result of "Technology Transfer in International Development", I'm sure that a belief that Universities will teach individual respect ( Not in my experience! ) is quite disrespectful as were several other comments here.
But sometimes the best way to earn respect is to punch someone in the nose!
Wilbur Streett Notice that I don't have any titles here! --------------------------------------- Putting a human face on technology. ;-) ---------------------------------------