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An interview with Bill Gates

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Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#111

Post by Swannie »

It is a joke. Worldwide internet access is available today, for a high price, via satellite.

Worldwide disease control is an incredibly hard problem.

Just think that only 20 years ago the internet was not generally used to conduct business. Sure academia, and some international businesses had embraced it, but it was in its infancy. People distributed information via many other means - means which are cheaper than the internet to this day. Everyone saying that the internet or telecoms enables faster and easier transfer of that information is correct - but it's not the only method, and it's certainly not the most efficient way to educate people.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#112

Post by rbanffy »

pmelendez wrote: post #105
killme wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree with you that Jobs was never a brilliant engineer, but I don't think Gates was particularly brilliant either and to say Jobs lacked imagination is ludicrous and to say he never invented anything is simply untrue. It may even be true he never invented a circuit (such as the Disk II controller) or never built a prototype himself, but that's not the whole of inventing something.

BTW, it was the Lisa that built upon the Alto (and added quite a bit of very clever ideas that never made it into the Mac).

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#113

Post by patrickaljord »

Volpe wrote: post #68
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.…

Some technology does uplift the poor, but not always, and not all technologies. Baloons giving internet access to people, doesn't seem to have an obvious uplifting effect on the poor? Could you explain how that will happen?

Increased internet penetration in Kenya creates jobs, improves education http://sabahionline.com/en_GB/articles/hoa/articles/features...

But seriously, this is HN, do I really need to explain to you why the internet creates job? Why it helps spread information and education? Is this 1997?

I'll give you a first hand experience though, I've lived for 5 years in Peru. There, students told me that Google and the internet has literally changed their life. Before they had to buy expensive books, cross the city or travel to get that book and be able to do copies. Now they just go to the net cafe next door, search on google, get their answer, print it and they're done. For less than half a dollar. A gain in time, money and information and a gain in what these newly educated students will bring to society. I can't even begin to imagine the impact that http://duolingo.com and http://khanacademy.org will have on humanity and the poorest.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#114

Post by tete »

Oh no, so my power point presentation on the cloud won't save the world? What a cruel realization for someone like me, living in the startup world, constantly getting told how great everything I do is. What comes next? The realization that electronics, like the iPhone end up as waste, destroying the environment and its acid causes cancer to children instead of bringing them rainbows and unicorns? It sounds just as bad as the realization that Facebook and other, invade privacy and are used for bullying leading to depressions and suicide.

(Sorry for that sarcasm)

About technology and evolution of society...

Did you know that the neolithic revolution actually caused diseases, famines and made humans more aggressive, less social, less intelligent and lowered the life expectancy so much that it only recovered in the last centuries.

Considering technology to solve all the really big problems is naive in a world, where most new technologies come with new diseases physical (posture, various forms of cancers by new materials, radiation, ..) and mental (addictions, depressions, reduction of memory retention).

No, I don't want to go and live like the apes. I enjoy the comforts, but given all this it's just self-deception to think that computers with internet would solve more problems to people suffering from illnesses than any other tool, a vaccine or even a change in world politics.

Folks, I am a technology and information enthusiast, but please lets keep our help cool and not get emotional over the realization that people may actually need something else and that technologies have dark sides and that there may be many cases where the pros outweigh the cons, but it's not a general rule and shouldn't be the religious dogma of a technocracy.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#115

Post by legulere »

vidarh wrote: post #56
Xylakant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Diseases are often cause by lack of knowledge and education Case in point: Polio is endemic in only three countries today: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. While in Afghanistan it'd be possible for it to be down to the war, in Pakistan and Nigeria it is down to skepticism and misinformation from religious groups (often based in past experiences) that are often amongst the most important information bearers in the…

Also there's an outburst in syria lately.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#116

Post by Xylakant »

legulere wrote: post #115
vidarh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Diseases are often cause by lack of knowledge and education Case in point: Polio is endemic in only three countries today: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. While in Afghanistan it'd be possible for it to be down to the war, in Pakistan and Nigeria it is down to skepticism and misinformation from religious groups (often based in past experiences) that are often amongst the most important information bearers in the…

Also there's an outburst in syria lately.

There was an outbreak in the USA in 2005 though no one suffered permanent damage: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/health/08iht-polio.html?pa...

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#117

Post by nzp »

bolder88 wrote: post #88
jbrooksuk wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pills.

That's an insane choice. Do you really value raw lifespan over quality of life?

Having cancer tends to negatively affect one's quality of life. ;) But it's an interesting question--quality of life vs. lifespan. Imagine if there was no possibility of prolonging human lifespan, but instead we had the means to stop aging, say in a person's mid twenties to mid thirties. Having some 50 or 60 years time with your mental and physical faculties in prime, not having to rush, being able to take your time and learn and do practically everything you want. We would live like gods.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#118

Post by Xylakant »

Swannie wrote: post #108
Xylakant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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, bu…

The internet is not only facebook and youtube, but a general purpose communications network. Having satellite internet available does not imply it's in any way affordable for local individual or organization. Having terrestrial internet for acceptable prices would allow for a variety of uses that are currently not possible, some of them undoubtedly beneficial for health care professionals.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#119

Post by Zigurd »

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...

You might be surprised at the priorities of the poor themselves. Internet access means knowing the market price rather than being ripped off by a middleman for your crop. Getting the market price might mean being able to afford indoor plumbing, but maybe a scooter comes first so grandma can be taken to a doctor when needed.

Curing malaria is inherently a top down priority. Acquiring communications is bottom up.

To take another example, providing a robot chauffeur maybe a solution to a first world problem, but cars kill twice as many people as malaria, so don't knock the robot chauffeur if he cuts traffic accidents by half or better.

Re: An interview with Bill Gates

#120

Post by Xylakant »

ivanca wrote: post #71
Xylakant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It's an egg-and-chicken problem then; you cannot manage the "available health resources" if those are nonexistent, so having those is a priority and that is more similar to what the BMGF is already doing.

A lot of countries in the developing world have existing health care resources, such as doctors or nurses, but managing them is a major problem in a state such as namibia or botswana where the population of a small city is spread out on a territory as large as germany. It helps if you can have a local, less qualified health care worker communicate with a remote specialist before either moving a doctor to the patient or the patient to the doctor. A medium to high bandwidth connection, eventually capable of video transmission helps a lot here.
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