Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
Check out the most popular
MIT's Guru of Low-Tech Engineering Saves World on $2 a day
popularmechanics.com — From impoverished Peruvian villages to MIT's D-Lab, professor Amy Smith and her spirited team of engineers are on a mission: Fight global poverty and improve living standards for developing countries—one low-cost, accessible invention at a time.
1KrazyKorean- 833 diggs
- digg it
- pepelu12, on 07/16/2008, -2/+12I can't imagine having to go hiking to get my water on a daily basis.
- fireashes, on 07/17/2008, -2/+7It is called appropriate technology or common-sense technology.
- doiveo, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen" (Albert Einstein)
The problem with your comment is: how many scientists have lived on $2 a day and know what it is to walk for water everyday? Does their elite knowledge and experience qualify them to have the correct "common sense" for Zambia? Only the specific experience of working at that location is what makes this technology appropriate.
Props to her for making that commitment.
- doiveo, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen" (Albert Einstein)
- bosssmiley, on 07/17/2008, -2/+20"Wood charcoal has been in use for thousands of years. However, for many of the world's poor, it can be a life-saving technology."
That is a sobering statement in itself. We in the rest are 2 or 3 forms of energy (charcoal > coal > oil > nuclear/solar/wind/hydro) ahead of these people. The least we can do is help them advance to a modern level while avoiding the damage we caused our own societies during industrialisation.
Appropriate/Adaptive technology: serious business.- fudsak, on 07/17/2008, -3/+1oopse, reply!=comment
- fudsak, on 07/17/2008, -3/+6I'm too lazy to read that article... but the title sounds like "saves the world a total of $2 each day!" as opposed to "it only costs $2 a day to save the world"
- eigenweasel, on 07/17/2008, -7/+5Given that the world's foremost problem is overpopulation, this 'guru' is actually hastening its destruction.
- DiscoUnderpants, on 07/17/2008, -1/+10It is well known that increasing wealth decreases population. THe long term problem for humans is going to be underpopulation and population replacement. Wealthy societies do not replace their own population. Only poor nations produce excess population. Once all societies are wealthy the human species will start to decline.
- eigenweasel, on 07/17/2008, -5/+4So the population problem will be solved when Africa has the same living standard as Japan and Switzerland?
Please start holding your breath now. - DiscoUnderpants, on 07/17/2008, -2/+5They dont have to have the same standard of living. They need to have enough wealth so people can support themselves in their own age. One of the reasons people have children is to have family to take care of them in their old age. Having a lot of children is a way to insure this in a society that has a high infant mortality rate. If you lower the infant mortality rate people generally have less children. If they have enough wealth to support themselves completely in old age then they have no functional use for children.
- Jektal, on 07/17/2008, -3/+1The redneck infant mortality rate isn't particularly high, doesn't stop them.
- eigenweasel, on 07/17/2008, -5/+4So the population problem will be solved when Africa has the same living standard as Japan and Switzerland?
- DiscoUnderpants, on 07/17/2008, -1/+10It is well known that increasing wealth decreases population. THe long term problem for humans is going to be underpopulation and population replacement. Wealthy societies do not replace their own population. Only poor nations produce excess population. Once all societies are wealthy the human species will start to decline.
- koft, on 07/17/2008, -16/+2***** this, keep 'em down. I like the comfortable life here in the US.
- koft, on 07/17/2008, -9/+1Gays, blacks and jews are burying me. My comment was ***** golden and every female digger who weighs less than 120 need to suck my ***** for reals. (18+ only)
- xatx2, on 07/17/2008, -4/+1i agree
- xNarrowSoulx, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Trolls aplenty!
- FaithclubDotNet, on 07/17/2008, -0/+8Helping rid the world of poverty should be the goal of everyone.
- jeebusroxors, on 07/17/2008, -6/+1If you're a pinko commie.
- bosssmiley, on 07/17/2008, -1/+5Ever heard the old saying that 'wealth sleeps uneasy in a bed of poverty'?
Having less people in poverty increases opportunities for local and international trade, for peaceful development, and for good order and stability in a society. Giving people a stake in society by giving them something to lose means they're less likely to think "F*ck it all" and mug the next rich(er) guy that passes.
I don't agree with doling out outright charity (except in disaster scenarios); nor do a lot of people in the developing world. They *know* that hard work is better than just begging for handouts just as we do. It's just self-destructive not to help someone when doing so ultimately makes you both better off.
- bosssmiley, on 07/17/2008, -1/+5Ever heard the old saying that 'wealth sleeps uneasy in a bed of poverty'?
- bunki8, on 07/17/2008, -2/+1How about we focus on ridding the US of poverty and then move on to the world....
- bunki8, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1I understand that people are worse off, and we do need to help major sources of death that we have fixes for, but I seriously don't think enough effort is being done on our own soil to help the poor and hungry.
- buba1243, on 07/17/2008, -1/+1Unless you are uber lazy there is no reason for you to be in poverty in the US. People always say minimum wage is not enough to live on that's why when I made minimum I worked 2 jobs 80 hours a week.
- Kreigster, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2I have a plan! and best of all we can get rid of our VX at the same time!
- jeebusroxors, on 07/17/2008, -6/+1If you're a pinko commie.
- Bulbospongiosus, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Next year there will be some charcoal barron buying up all the corn cobs and gouging people for their cooking fuel.
- govsucks, on 07/17/2008, -8/+2"one low-cost, accessible invention at a time" That will eventually require a large multinational manufacturer if ANY of them are to be produced at a reasonably affordable price. Throw out all this heart felt commie collectivist crap you like but it still takes a willing PAID individual to manufacture and a well organized capitalist to make it affordable.
- Dragonboarder94, on 07/17/2008, -1/+1a guy by the name of govsucks preaching about capitalism
is it just me or is something wrong here?- govsucks, on 07/17/2008, -2/+1WHAT!? I can't capitalize on opportunities in a free market without government? Perhaps YOU can't but I can take care of myself.
- GeneralFailure0, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Capitalism isn't a pure market system, it's an economic model with limited government intervention. By preaching capitalism you are praising the minimal intervention of government in the economy inherent in such a system, and by extension the existence of government.
Either way, you're kind of generalizing both sides of an issue that isn't relevant to this article.
- PicklesNCheese, on 07/24/2008, -1/+3This shows that you know nothing of what has been done in the developing world already. Something as simple as teaching people to make their own cheap water filters out of sand and rocks has already been used to give thousands of families clean drinking water in the developing world. Look around you idiot. The rest of the world is volunteering their time and expertise, and here you sit in your cynical, ignorant little corner claiming that those who are doing something useful obviously have no idea what they're doing.
- Dragonboarder94, on 07/17/2008, -1/+1a guy by the name of govsucks preaching about capitalism
- FasterGun, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Amy Smith also attended and spoke at TED Feb2006: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/amy_smith_share ...
This woman and her team are like MacGyver except they save thousands of lives. - LightningCount, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Great article, actually...but I don't think you need to go to MIT to get that sort of know-how. Most people are born with common sense.
- HonoredMule, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Show me these alleged people who are born with (or even acquired over time) this common sense.
- Barackalypse, on 07/17/2008, -2/+1Cheapest and most effective way to improve living stands in these countries: sterilization. Poverty is hereditary.
- joshhan, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Wow! That's a great idea! Let all the poor families die out. That way, only rich people will be left. Great idea!
- Barackalypse, on 07/18/2008, -0/+1Are you suggesting such a plan would not eliminate most of the poverty in the world? It certainly produces better results than the status quo, where the current generation of poor begets and even larger generation of poor, and the industrial world wastes trillions of dollars trying to help but never manages to cotrol the problem.
- joshhan, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1The point is:
1) Who are you to determine who or who cannot have children?
2) If you disallow these people from having children, what other "rights" will you take away from them?
3) How will you set up this sterilization program? Herd people into concentration camps? Hunt them down if they refuse?
There are tons of other arguments against your broad statement but there are a few.
- joshhan, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Wow! That's a great idea! Let all the poor families die out. That way, only rich people will be left. Great idea!
- morpheus2485, on 07/18/2008, -0/+0there is a wiki for this kind of stuff. appropedia.org
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by