Personal wealth, Negroponte and the Sikorsky CH-53

So Negroponte has been working on his $100 laptop for every child which seems a noble if difficult row to hoe. He recently left MIT Media Lab to pursue this effort (to be replaced, notably, by Frank Moss) and is now chairman of the One Laptop Per Child organization







This just won't due for Mr. Gates, who was recently noted as 'mocking' Nicholas for his efforts (see Bill Gates mocks MIT's $100 laptop project). Apparently, Bill wants them to have $600-$900 devices based on the MS Origami.

This would be all well and good if he would use his money...but wait, even the richest person on the planet can't make that happen for all of the children!

And yet my friend, Charles Shapiro, noted that Bill has done good, giving enough money to malarial prevention to really make a difference, while our penny-pinching founder of Wal-Mart gave like $10,000 to charity during his stay (now, I haven't actually checked the figures, so maybe somebody else can do some fact checking for me).

Okay, so I mentioned Bill is the richest man on the planet, but what about intergalactically? And if there was competition, how would we measure and compare intergalactic wealth? Charles, always the thinking man, suggested using the Kardashev scale, essentially boiling the problem down to 'how big a rock can he lift?". Now, for clarity, I think we need to specify that we are not talking actual size, but equivalent mass with equivalent gravities, elsewise it might be a bit unfair.

So, a poor person could lift with their own strength plus perhaps a donkey. I could probably spring for a back-hoe for a day. But Bill, well, he could go out and get him a Sikorsky CH-53 to move his rock around.


I guess in the end, it comes down to technology!