Comments on: Yet another post about how technology will solve all of our problems (with a cartoon!)

By: Mariel

Mariel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:06:56 +0000

Andrea, thanks for the the comment! I’m also responding to your comments on my personal blog (http://everydayidealist.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/ipad-vs-olpc-and-the-ridiculousness-of-tech-expectations/).

Despite my word choice, I love technology, and am an enthusiastic adopter. I think it is an immensely powerful tool, and agree with you that the iPad could expand opportunities to go digital. I also support your enthusiasm, because without faith in in technology’s ability to improve lives does as well, because without it, there is little incentive for progress.

From a development perspective, however, it is frustrating to have each new device treated as a panacea, because typically it either 1. indicates a lack of understanding of the underlying infrastructure – which I mention in my post at D&S, and which doesn’t exist, or isn’t reliable, in many countries, or 2. it assumes that all problems are nails just waiting for the iPad’s (or similar) hammer. These are problematic not because they imply some flaw in the technology, but because they create, perpetuate, and then exhaust everyone with unrealistic expectations for development.

By: Andrea Di Maio

Andrea Di Maio — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:56:20 +0000

I do not think I said that the iPad will target the same audience as the OLPC. Not do I believe I ever said that technology alone solves problem. What I meant is that there are several different types of digital divide. Unfortunately the one that gets more attention is the one that the OLPC tries to address: developing countries with serious infrastructure deficiencies. My post was addressing other divides: senior citizens, people with disabilities, students who care less and less about learning, people who do not engage, and so forth. My contention is that a device like the iPad can be quite effective for them: also because, as the iPhone has clearly shown, its multiple uses have yet to be discovered.

By: Barak

Barak — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:16:51 +0000

I think you make a great point, Mariel. It’s often unclear how people will use technologies and what types of problems they will solve. Cell phone producers, for example, never imagined that they were solving banking problems in Africa or making election fraud more difficult, but cell phone users have been able to use their phones to accomplish these goals.

I also like the cartoon since I often feel that people see technology as solution to a problem they have not yet defined.

By: iPad vs OLPC and the Ridiculousness of Tech Expectations « The Everyday Idealist

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:14:53 +0000

[...] iPad vs OLPC and the Ridiculousness of Tech Expectations I think I’ve now used ‘ridiculous’ or some form of it so many times in reference to iPad and technology as to lose all meaningfulness. It’s just that articles such as this one at Gartner infuriate me, as they seem to be based purely on enthusiasm and not reality. I’m all for enthusiasm and setting fire to the world, and I am not at all a luddite, but let’s not confuse the purpose and function of technology for that of people and institutions. Technology is NOT development. It is simply a tool for development. Nor will the mere appearance of technology lead to development (actually, if we define development as the rise in living standards, Jane Jacobs makes a powerful argument that technology can underdevelop or even un-develop). In any case, there’s more about the post over at D&S. [...]