Why a $5 computer will improve the world?
There is a computer created by a non profit organisation that is being sold for $5. Yes, I wrote it right, $5. This computer is by far the cheapest ever sold. If we contextualise it in our daily routine, the computer is cheaper than the cost of a coffee from Starbucks or a pack cigarettes. The computer is called Raspberry Pi Zero and it is totally British.
Democratisation and globalisation of everything is not something new nor something that we do not about it. Due to the lack of infrastructure and high costs, smartphones came and pushed their way into the developing countries. Along with infrastructure, cheaper tech will gradually be available everywhere. In the near future free online education (as edX) or crowdfunding (instead of charity) will be the way to combat inequality. There should not be differences between a boy playing in the streets of Port-au-Prince and the one playing in NY… and these tools are going to change inequality before we end this century.
Is it going to solve inequality in the next 25 years? For sure not, but the welfare foundations could be introduced in many countries. Clearly the solution is not that simple, the introduction of new techs as social media helped to ignite revolutions out of control as we have seen in the Middle-East. But again, it is a fact that the new information-era has come to stay, and there is no return.