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Journal perfessor multigeek's Journal: The Freedom Pack, what should it be? 9

Journal by perfessor multigeek
I've been blowing a lot of smoke in my postings lately about ways to use massive tech infusions to undermine bad guys and reenforce good guys. Stuff like solar ovens to free peasant societies from time wasted getting fuel, condoms (or better yet, condom factories) to help women's rights, massively cheap and specially configured computers to increase literacy and communications. Leveraging stuff. Hacking the very substructures of totalitarianism.
I've decided to write something a bit less back-of-the-envelope about this and I'm curious as to what you folks think.
belles, any thoughts on earth berm or other housebuilding stuff? (I know, for example, that NGOs are having fits looking for really cheap ways to get potable water or working build-your-own latrines.)
gmh, any thoughts on ways to build reasoning skills? (always ask the angriest or most irritated smart guy in the room that one; he's the best motivated to fix it).
memfree, Some Woman, thoughts on enabling stuff for gender issues?
Com2Kid, radical cheap tech for getting DIY going?
I'm shamelessly choosing folks and some of their respective obvious strong points to point out how much expertise, brains, and passion we've got around here. Anybody care to weigh in?
I know that there are plenty of NGOs out there taking their shot but they all play much too nice for my tastes. If the slimelords of Somalia oppose the spread of cheap greenhouses and water accumulators then the hell with them, let's airdrop 'em in anyway. In other words, I'm interested in thoughts about what is called "appropriate technology" in general, but in particular thoughts about stuff explicitly meant to undermine the power dynamics of the poverty-stricken or simply living-under-the-gun parts of the world.
Curious to see what y'all will say,
Rustin
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The Freedom Pack, what should it be? More

The Freedom Pack, what should it be?

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  • I'm the angry guy? Kooky. Should have met me before I got medicated.

    Read. Read everything you can get your hands on. Literacy is the only way to be able to argue and be able to properly get pissed off. Stuff you like, stuff you don't like. Volume is very important, but don't ignore depth. The classics are a good starting place. Perhaps THE starting place. Best of all, I imagine most of them are available gratis at... Oh, heck, there was a /. article just today on them. Project Gutenberg. That's it.

    I vent my spleen here to keep from venting it on my kid and wife. I saw some lady today at Target totally lose it. Would have said something, but I figure the kid would have gotten it even worse when she got home. Some people really shouldn't have kids.

    • Yeah, I'ld say that relative to the general tone in these parts, you've got a certain, well, angularity. I mean, hey, you've certainly got grounds. Eeesh. Easy you ain't got it these days.
      My point was no more or less then that I remember from *my* days that as an Angry Guy (TM), that one develops a hair-trigger awareness of stupid-think in the people one has to deal with. Especially in a responsible systems job that forces the need of signatures and budgets from the, let's call them the differently cognitive.
      I was hoping that perhaps you'ld be willing to point the insights into stupidthink that one develops in such states towards the question of ways to prevent same.
      In other words, Do you have any thoughts on things that one could drop into a culture (particular books, toys, tools, systems) that would tend to help the great unwashed develop the cognitive skills that would make them less pliable as the sheep/slaves of folks like the BinSauds or Saddam?
      It was my suspicion that as a combination systems guy/Angry Guy(TM), and dad you'ld be a good person to ask.
      Hmmmm?
      Rustin
      • As I said in the original, I think any of the 'classics' of western literature are helpful. Of particular use? Machiavelli. Sun Tzu (no, not Western Civ., but has anyone a better treatise on waging war?) Dare I say it? Ayn Rand. Who was that French guy who wrote the book on the founding of the US? I'm embarassing myself now... The Federalist papers. No Logo by Naomi Klein. The Complete Practical Brewer and The Complete Practical Distiller, because you can't possibly stomach philosophy without a BAC that will get you in trouble with the State Police. Howl. Pictures of kids playing. Pictures of kids dying. Some porn. The Preamble to the US Constitution.

        Bic lighters. (Or Zippo's). Those portable reverse osmosis water filters. One ton of the best bio-engineered grain available, and to hell with the patents. Just make sure this is hardy stuff, not some grain requiring Con-Agra's special fertilizer mix.

        Lego, Erector sets, Lincoln Logs, etc. Magnets. Slide puzzles (you know with a 4x4 grid with one piece taken out. You slide around until a pattern is made) Those peg jumping puzzles. A Rubik's Cube.

        They'll need to learn both the means and the motive for change. Frequently, the same people can't learn these things. Look here on /. for an example. Lots of people who know how to solve a programming or engineering problem, but don't know why it matters. That's what makes ESR so interesting: he can program, but he can (and does:) expound on why Freedom matters.

        I used to keep my journal clean. But then I realized that I started writing here just to write whatever I wanted. And people have stuck around, which is a good thing. It's far too easy to modify my tone, attitudes, etc. to please an 'audience'. No longer worth the effort. In RL, that approach can offend and put off people, but in the long run, the people I interact with seem to appreciate that they don't have to figure out how I 'really feel'. I'll tell 'em. Except at work:)

        • Cool. Looks like you're heading in the same directions that I have been. I'm not familiar with No Logo; I'll have to check it out.
          On the Sun Tzu front I find that the editions that relate it to Mao' s and Ho's interpretations fill it out nicely with modern-world circumstances.
          You know what annoys me most about Ayn Rand? That she's getting more relevant every day.
          Bic/Zippo lighters. Hm. Good point. *Very* good point.
          Howl. Yeah, makes sense; should have thought of that one.
          Thanks. That's a really solid start.
          Rustin
          By the way, the "French guy" was Alexis De Toqueville.
          • I remembered De Toqueville while I was tossing and turning, trying to go to sleep last night:)

            I've only read Sun Tzu once, back when I was about 14. No idea what translation. Would like to read that one again myself.

  • I have no clue how to make the world a better place. As far as I'm concerned, it all comes down to getting people to stop hating and start accepting each other's differences. Get people to start thinking in terms of humanity instead of themselves. Simply saying "Educate everyone" is too simplistic. Eliminating hatreds is close to impossible.

    My local paper ran a syndicated editorial on slavery today [philly.com], and complained that the U.S. can do still more to prevent it. I don't know that making the U.S. responsible is particularly useful.

    In the past, you've brought up some sound ideas on improving conditions in 3rd world markets. The ideas were good.

    I expect the largest stumbling blocks to improvements in foreign lands is the inability of the average 'entitled' person to see the disparity, or to discern a way they can help. Personally, I won't send money to random charitable groups because I worry that the cash will go into the organization rather than to the people they claim it will help. So what can I -- or anyone who needs to keep a job -- do? I can't go join the Peace Corps. I can't make great documentary films like, Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujaheddin [imdb.com] or Daughter from Danang [imdb.com] or Two Towns of Jasper [imdb.com] that might open peoples' minds.

    Oops. Now I'm stuck on movies (again). I wish I remembered the name of the documentary that follows two men whose job is to drive a truck, many films and projector through India and charge folks in small villages to see movies -- a wandering cinema. They got a special permit to enter an 'untouched' village where the country is attempting to preserve the local culture. Tourists, vendors and other outsiders are forbidden accept with special governmental approval. This is the boss's idea, and is intended to be a gesture of giving. For once, they won't be charging admission. They get there, and the boss is ill, so the assistant has to do everything. He decides to play a Bollywood action movie for the locals. As the level of sexism and violence increase, so too increases the numbers of viewers who walk out. Afterwards, a villager asks that they NOT come back.

    The point of all that movie talk is that movies (documentaries, in particular) can be an easy way to educate people. If you can present a group with people living out an alternative way of doing things, they can a) see potentials, and/or b) find fault with the characters on screen yet feel attacked, themselves. Getting a literate population is even better, but harder to do -- and requiring lots of resources.

    In far-fetched arenas: since I was a teen, I've said that if I was supreme dictator of the planet, I'd put birth control in all water supplies, and require people to pass a parenting test before being allowed to be parents. To create more equality for women, perhaps it'd be better if, instead, all men were castrated, and their sperm saved for later paternal use. Think of the reduction in violence! Think of the increase in work accomplishments when looking for (and viewing) porn is uninteresting!

    How about we try to organize women to stop working until issues resolve? This has been occasionally effective [bbc.co.uk] in special situations -- but it often [statenews.com] fails [cleanclothes.org] (just to cite a very few [hartford-hwp.com]). If a society/oppressor doesn't value human life, there's no point arguing for the rights of anyone. An England may change its ways when a Gandhi emerges, but a Stalin would not care *what* a Gandhi like figure thought or did -- and would likely jail/kill him ASAP.

    Here are a couple additional bits of discouragement: One sided "Ethical Boycotts [blueyonder.co.uk]" link and problems enacting change [fairlabor.org].
  • Stay cheap, stay efficient, don't waste needlessly. Always remember that being efficient may at times entail not buying from the lowest bidder and that the total sum of money spent in the long run is what counts.

    When in doubt remember that there are likely at least two markets for which any given product is sold to and that it is sold cheaper to one of those markets than the other. . . .

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