Solving the World’s Problems, One Laptop at a Time

Along with poverty, hunger, and disease, philanthropists have found a new problem to throw their money at: the technological divide.

Enter the $100 laptop. Developed at MIT by Nicholas Negroponte, the laptop is aimed at the millions of children in third world countries who do not have access to the benefits of technology. Running a 500 Mhz processor with 1 GB of memory (no hard drive) and a version of the free Linux operating system, this computer isn’t going to run Doom 4. But of course, thats not its purpose. As Nicholas Negroponte put it, “If we can make education better–particularly primary and secondary schools–it will be a better world.”

But how can these laptops work in a world with almost no modern infrastructure? The bright minds over at MIT have a few interesting ideas. First, the laptop will be hand powered. A crank wheel allows up to 40 minutes of power for every one minute of cranking. There is also the option to change the screen from color to black and white to help conserve energy. The laptop will also be Wi-Fi enabled. However, instead of having to be directly connected to a Wi-Fi base, the laptops will talk directly with each other, creating a mesh network. This means that in a rural village only one person actually needs to be connected to the internet. This laptop will relay the connection over to everyone else in range. Then these laptops will again relay the signal, creating a giant hotspot.

So when can you pick one of these up? “Never”, says Negroponte, on his website www.laptop.org. “The laptops will only be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives.”