Re: [Marxism] One Laptop per Child

[ehrbar <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Craig wrote, in jest:

> Ok, now I know you're an agent of imperialism if you want those poor
> kids to learn python -- the slowest of the "scripting languages", with
> a resident image so big that the base Sugar install takes up like half
> the system RAM when running.  It doesn't even have macros!  Every
> red-blooded marxist-lambdaist knows that it should have been scheme,
> and Bigloo scheme at that.  So fast, so sweet, so french!

Python is simple enough that even kids can learn it, and with its
libraries it is powerful enough that many production applications are
written in python.  And it is a clean language which teaches them good
object-oriented programming style.  And it is quite elegant.

To me, python represents the best of what free software has to offer:
it gives the user command over the computer.  The microsoft style of
computing turns the user into a consumer.  This heritage of free
software is one thing I like about the OLPC project.  The other is the
networking aspect: both the local mesh network, and the internet
access.

For many years, the privileges of the industrialized countries have
been preserved by preventing the information flow to the poorer
countries.  Marx's economic tendency towards world wide equalization
of all labor due to world trade was effectively and deliberately
inhibited by simply not letting the vast majority of this planet's
population into the loop of how modern mass production has to be done.
Modern IT has penetrated this barrier on the information flow.  This
is why I think computers are as important to people in Africa and
everywhere else as AIDS medicine.

Of course, my 'prediction' regarding the OLPC is not a scientific
finding but a matter of judgment.  In my judgment, the OLPC is a
revolutionary project which should be watched and defended.  I wanted
to bring this to the attention of the crowd on the marxism list.  If
you consider it and come to different conclusions, this is fine,
because it is too early to know whether the OLPC will really make a
difference.  But thank you for considering it.

Hans.





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