Sunday, October 4, 2009 by Maria
In this weeks reading Winston points out that technologies have been growing throughout history as will continue to grow as an eternal process. As technology grows further the speed of its expansion has become phenomenal and will no doubt also expand in the role it plays in our intellectual growth. However, Negronte's proposal of expanding technology such as laptops into third world country's in my point of view is both ignorant and insensitive to the fact that a physically malnourished human being has to first focus on survival of the physical existence before he can focus on the intellectual.
Brian Winston's article ("Let Them Eat Laptops") ironically first points this out in the articles name itself: In my view it puts through the idea that first one needs food for survival so why give someone something that throws them straight on the tenth step instead of starting on the first. Moreover, how is it that a first world country could have enough recourses to help a third world country with technology instead of increasing "life's other obvious necessities". To add to this, giving a third world country "laptops" without explaining how to use them seems like a demeaning stunt in order to bask in ones advancements while watching someone else struggle with them. This is certainly not a good way to start a digitally capitalised world.
Just as an additional source for those interested Dan Schiler's book - "Digital Capitalism" forms another thorough critique of the impact that computer technology has on today's society. Claims by Microsoft's Bill Gates and others that the Web will bring "robust direct democracy" and "friction-free capitalism" are just a utopian vision, says the author. The common link between the domains we have traversed is a secular build up of transnational corporate power to define and shape social institutions. A couple of thousand giant companies... today preside, not only over the economy but also over a larger web of institutions involved in social reproduction: business, of course, but also formal education, politics, and culture.
Brian Winston's article ("Let Them Eat Laptops") ironically first points this out in the articles name itself: In my view it puts through the idea that first one needs food for survival so why give someone something that throws them straight on the tenth step instead of starting on the first. Moreover, how is it that a first world country could have enough recourses to help a third world country with technology instead of increasing "life's other obvious necessities". To add to this, giving a third world country "laptops" without explaining how to use them seems like a demeaning stunt in order to bask in ones advancements while watching someone else struggle with them. This is certainly not a good way to start a digitally capitalised world.
Just as an additional source for those interested Dan Schiler's book - "Digital Capitalism" forms another thorough critique of the impact that computer technology has on today's society. Claims by Microsoft's Bill Gates and others that the Web will bring "robust direct democracy" and "friction-free capitalism" are just a utopian vision, says the author. The common link between the domains we have traversed is a secular build up of transnational corporate power to define and shape social institutions. A couple of thousand giant companies... today preside, not only over the economy but also over a larger web of institutions involved in social reproduction: business, of course, but also formal education, politics, and culture.