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what about the thugs?what about the thugs?Posted May 30, 2006 3:27 UTC (Tue) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256)In reply to: what about the thugs? by filteredperception Parent article: OLPC hardware details posted
Clearly you can't just blindly put these anywhere.
Luckily there aren't many military uses for these things. I could see them used as digital "walkie-talkies" (using chat or audio/VOIP over the wireless mesh). For low tech guerilla warfare there isn't much other value to computing devices.
JimD
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what about the thugs? Posted May 30, 2006 3:52 UTC (Tue) by filteredperception (guest, #5692) [Link] Simply stealing and reselling, ala existing issues with food aid is one concern. However, with only a little imagination, I can easily see either guerilla, or institutionalized military uses for this hardware configuration-
- ebooks and emaps, i.e. having a library of survival and training manuals and maps in one rugged package. I was about to concede that in the guerilla case you might be right, but I think easily passing along training materials and recruitment propoganda, is a huge issue, along with communicating institutional information (slow communications that propogate through the p2p net).
And don't discount the usefulness of a highly configurable 'com unit'.
what about the thugs? Posted May 30, 2006 5:21 UTC (Tue) by The_Pirate (guest, #21740) [Link] I'm sorry, but are you Trolling?
The seemingly only way out of the evil circle of wars, child soldiers etc. is education: Openness. Respect for others. Knowledge.
You seem to want to bog the system down with every badness that exist in the upcoming Vista - if it ever shows. No sharing. No openness.
What these warlords fear most of all is teachers and education. If they give their troops these computers, they will give them precisely that.
what about the thugs? Posted May 30, 2006 7:36 UTC (Tue) by filteredperception (guest, #5692) [Link] No, not trolling.
I agree with your way out.
No, I don't __WANT__ to bog down the system.
In my scenario, the warlords are giving the stolen laptops with replacement OSs (perhaps same distro, but the wikipedia replaced with maps and survival manuals, and tools for connection to the internet replaced with tools that only allow connections to their own networks. And silent keyloggers so they can watch what their underlings are doing).
While the troops given such stolen laptops might get some computer literacy education that might inspire them to think they have more options in life, the more likely scenario is that the laptops are given to the field commanders that are already completely corrupt and ruling over their child soldiers with ruthless means.
I am not trolling at all. The problem of food aid given to countries without stable governments is a real one, vis a vis the warlords stealing the aid and using it for themselves or selling it.
If you think somehow this problem doesn't apply to the OLPC project, and needn't be seriously addressed... well, I hope your right, but I disagree.
what about the thugs? Posted May 30, 2006 14:10 UTC (Tue) by jstAusr (guest, #27224) [Link] Maybe your education could be enhanced with one of those laptops.
I believe lack of education is the root of the problem. Education can allow people to see the deception of those that they follow.
what about the thugs? Posted May 30, 2006 18:20 UTC (Tue) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link] If only that were strictly true.
Idiology is intrinsic to human nature. To elaborate/clarify, we are not strictly logical creatures. You don't have to look very far to see this is true. We have all sorts of "religions". Some involve churches, others involve politics. Where humans exist, so does factionalism. And we don't generally debate our differences in a calm and logical manner. If we did, there would be a lot more consensus in the world.
It is highly dangerous to assume we are logical creatures. In my opinion it is a fallacy of the worst sort. Positive change will come when we acknowledge and work to compensate for our flaws.
Thats my 2 cents anyway.
what about the thugs? Posted May 30, 2006 7:55 UTC (Tue) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] training materials and recruitment propoganda,Do these conflicts even involve training materials and propaganda? The impressions I have got from various accounts is that these childs soldiers with kalashnikovs are "recruited" by being stolen from their homes or collected from streets, then brainwashed in brutal camps. As to the uses of the device, it has a WLAN, which is not a long-range radio. It would reach other units inside a school or maybe a village, but certainly not over several kilometers of jungle or hilly terrain. So it would be useless for organizing guerrilla units. Inexpensive walkie-talkies that are already readily available all over the world work much better for that, they are more rugged and do not require their user's to be literate.
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