I have been thinking about this post for sometime, and these days I even question literacy programs, in the sense that, why can’t we literates culturally accommodate and develop methods to communicate to illiterates in a way that is suitable for them, namely, if we have sign language and braille why not oral communication, and an infrastructure of scribes, narrators, story tellers etc. to share scientific, literary, health, nutritional, agricultural, political knowledge and information to those who cannot read or write. Could we not just broadcast this in the field via speakers, or theater, or radio, or…? Why do we have to remove people’s kids for a large part of the day from their homes, communities and fields etc. in developing countries to teach reading and writing and then mostly send them back to their class, homes, communities disconnected intellectually from their families? Just because of economic participate in the literate world? Now there was a scarry bit in Diamond age where the Leased Territory residents mostly go information fed to them via images and symbols, which put them at a disadvantage with the literates. However, what if we valued different modes of communicating and just thought of doing that in the same way we do not think the blind or hearing impaired as being intellectually inferior.

Being that as it may, we do not have a global system in place to deal with particularities very well at the moment, so we move toward universal models, and tools - like reading and writing or computer platforms. And i wonder if I had the choice of whether or not my kids had access to an OLPC or not while i was in a rural and remote area, i was poor and wanted to give them a change in the present world what would i do? Is it better or worse than TV, which is ubiquitous in the 3rd world as are f…ing rambo movies? My young Naga friends know more about western pop culture than i do, as there is little about themselves anywhere nor the access to the tools and infrastructures to tell their own stories. What if the olpc allowed people to write their own stories and find news ways to communicate them?

It is all political economy, and having been to a few 3rd world classrooms, there are no textbooks anyway, so there is not much replacing going on and if there are, they are dated 1962!

I just accessed a bunch of historical books on jStor about naga folklore, politics, sociology etc. content that my naga friends currently do not have access to because a) they are not a member of a university that has a membership to that service, b) if they did there would not be any computers and c) because in nagaland the libraries do not exist and if they do there is no naga material in them, and if they do they are far from the rural classroom, d) there are no archives with that material in them.

So, maybe the olpc and the hutzpah around open access journals etc. might get them that material.

And well, the transhumanists are a weird bunch, but that does not make tec bad! We are all cyborgs as our habitats are intrically interconnected with massive infrastructures. To go canoeing in the woods you still rely on the car, fuel, the road, a map, food, and a forest/lake/river park protection infrastructure.

I think a more interesting question is what technology for what purpose, to meet what ends and the intentions.