Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An interview with Bill Gates

ft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 171 posts

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#101

Post by moron4hire »

Qom wrote: post #61

Disclaimer: I am not a STEM guy so don't go calling me an elitist. This might seem like a callous view but I think it's better to invest money on helping the scientist caste (wherever they might have been born) than to simply cure a bunch of random people. In the movie Elysium (2013), they send magic machines to help the masses, which achieves nothing since they are just as poor as before but a bit healthier. I left…

The problem it's that you don't know where the next Newton will come from. Better to give everyone the chance because, as you say, he was so influential.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#102

Post by majika »

bolder88 wrote: post #19
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #9

He's right. Poverty, disease and basic things like that are things about _survival_, the internet is not. But mainly, the title is provocative and misleading. The article clearly states, he was asked a leading question "asked whether giving the planet an internet connection is more important than finding a vaccination for malaria", and he answered. The title makes it seem like he went out of his way to make the compa…

Those things are also about increasing our problems down the line IMHO The world population has doubled in the last 30 years. Doesn't that scare anyone else? Sure, you could save a few million poorly educated people from dying. Then what? They're all going to need food, energy, education, housing, etc etc. Saving people from dying is no good at all if they still have a shitty life and die from something else anyway.

I'm all for having less humans around, but actually, educating women, eradicating poverty, and lowering death rates has shown to be the best way to reduce a country's birth rate. It just takes a generation or two. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#103

Post by dodyg »

Xylakant wrote: post #45
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #9

He's right. Poverty, disease and basic things like that are things about _survival_, the internet is not. But mainly, the title is provocative and misleading. The article clearly states, he was asked a leading question "asked whether giving the planet an internet connection is more important than finding a vaccination for malaria", and he answered. The title makes it seem like he went out of his way to make the compa…

> He's right. Poverty, disease and basic things like that are things about _survival_, the internet is not. I'd say he's at least partially wrong. Diseases are often cause by lack of knowledge and education, outburst can often be contained with good means of communication. I know people doing projects that use the internet (or cellphone text messages) to allow remote villages to better manage the available health res…

Connectivity goes both ways - go check the fireband anti vaccine movements in the US.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#104

Post by mkr-hn »

philliphaydon wrote: post #98
mtgx wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it wasn't "just a leading question". Bill Gates has said something similar before, and quite recently, about Google's Loons: > Bill Gates: Google's Project Loon Doesn't 'Uplift the Poor' Which is a pretty stupid statement to make considering technology does in fact "uplift the poor", since it leads to better economic environment, jobs, and better living conditions. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422884,00.…

Yeah giving internet to people who barely have running water and electricity is REALLY going to help uplift the poor. Solve health issues so people can work rather than spread disease. Introduce agriculture and self sustaining society. Then maybe you can introduce technology...

http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/2007/07...

> While at the conference, the young Malawian saw the internet for the first time and within hours began Google-searching for "windmill" and "solar energy" and was amazed with how many hits were returned for each search.

> Kamkwamba was particularly impressed with the speed at which he could achieve things using the internet. "I was very excited when I saw the internet for the first time," he said. "The internet makes transfer of information very instant."

Now imagine a billion people with the same access to information on useful things like good sanitation and building windmills.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#105

Post by pmelendez »

killme wrote: post #81
mtgx wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it wasn't "just a leading question". Bill Gates has said something similar before, and quite recently, about Google's Loons: > Bill Gates: Google's Project Loon Doesn't 'Uplift the Poor' Which is a pretty stupid statement to make considering technology does in fact "uplift the poor", since it leads to better economic environment, jobs, and better living conditions. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422884,00.…

Bill Gates has spent a lot of time among the world's poorest poor. When you do that, your perspective changes completely and he seems to be talking from that perspective. Also, did you read the linked article? He clearly addresses your point. >Innovation is a good thing. The human condition – put aside bioterrorism and a few footnotes – is improving because of innovation,” he says. But while ­“technology’s amazing, i…

"Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything"

Which is a funny statement coming from Jobs, since he didn't invent anything either. Ripping off is fine when you add value, like the original Mac which borrowed a lot from Xerox labs prototypes.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#106

Post by ehsanu1 »

spiritplumber wrote: post #75
mistermann wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what it is?

An antbot attachment that causes mosquitos to stop flying, so they are easy to kill on the ground. I am working on having the antbot also kill the mosquitos without being piloted.

Googling for "antbot" returns a variety of seemingly unrelated projects. Could you possibly be more specific? But more curious to know the mechanism behind it that causes mosquitos to stop flying.

Though I have to say, robotics doesn't seem like the cheapest way to go about killing malaria - though it would be awesome if it turns out to be.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#107

Post by spiritplumber »

ehsanu1 wrote: post #106
spiritplumber wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An antbot attachment that causes mosquitos to stop flying, so they are easy to kill on the ground. I am working on having the antbot also kill the mosquitos without being piloted.

Googling for "antbot" returns a variety of seemingly unrelated projects. Could you possibly be more specific? But more curious to know the mechanism behind it that causes mosquitos to stop flying. Though I have to say, robotics doesn't seem like the cheapest way to go about killing malaria - though it would be awesome if it turns out to be.

I make the antbot :) www.f3.to if you care. It is a sturdy platform for doing things like shooting bugs with lasers and the battery life is good.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#108

Post by Swannie »

Xylakant wrote: post #45
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #9

He's right. Poverty, disease and basic things like that are things about _survival_, the internet is not. But mainly, the title is provocative and misleading. The article clearly states, he was asked a leading question "asked whether giving the planet an internet connection is more important than finding a vaccination for malaria", and he answered. The title makes it seem like he went out of his way to make the compa…

> He's right. Poverty, disease and basic things like that are things about _survival_, the internet is not. I'd say he's at least partially wrong. Diseases are often cause by lack of knowledge and education, outburst can often be contained with good means of communication. I know people doing projects that use the internet (or cellphone text messages) to allow remote villages to better manage the available health res…

You're talking about telecommunications - not the internet. There is a difference. You don't need the internet for telecoms. You don't even need a mobile phone (though in today's Africa, generally a mobile will do a lot more for you). Africa are still fighting to get get decent telecommunications cover. Let alone internet. Telecoms is important, and undoubtedly saves and enriches lives. The internet, yes that too, but to a lesser degree.

Telecoms is available world wide for a price, via satellite. Internet is also available worldwide for a price. Broadband is coming in the next few years, worldwide, for a bigger price. Health revolution worldwide is not even on the horizon.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#110

Post by asadlionpk »

I think both internet(read education) and child health are important for any part of the world. You can't always be fixing their health problems rather than giving them a means of learning how to fix their problems themselves. You need to do both at the same time.

"give a man a fish..."

Post reply on HN