Thursday, November 30, 2006

High Horse

I don't want to be critical of the OLPC project. Really. But it is interesting to see how the technology is being used. For starters, we already have DOOM ported over to the OLPC. Now I'm the first to say I have spent many an hour playing doom, but is this really the intention of the project? Or how about the one million OLPC's ordered by Nigeria to run scams? They can't even afford them in the first place.

I'm optimistic about the project, but right now I don't see a lot of lives in the targeted audience being affected for the better. Right now, it seems to be a device to practice being violent and to run scams - the only thing missing is the specialized porn application. Weighed from a green perspective, is the impact that these machines will have on the environment worth it, to promote violence and run scams?

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