Oct 24 2011: I didn't suggest that there would be egalitarian distribution of new technologies. I simply suggested that innovations help developing countries sidestep the need to go through the same pain that developed countries have been through in the past e.g. driving cars versus using horses, being vaccinated versus dying from diseases, democracy versus dictatorships, farming methods that work versus farming methods that don’t, etc. All of this shortcuts the path to development. In other words, innovation has shown a better way of doing things, meaning developing countries don’t have to spend time figuring out the best way to achieve a goal, it has already been defined through innovation.By having technology to access education and health services, we can achieve in 5 years what developed countries took 100 years to achieve. The end result of all this is that developing countries should become developed in a much shorter time than ever before in history, diminishing the gap between the rich and poor countries (e.g. Russia, India, China, Brazil, South Africa). In some cases, especially in sub Saharan Africa, the gap seems to be widening, but I think that without innovation the gap would be far wider than it is now.
Oct 24 2011: Simone, I am interested to hear why you fear that the gap between industrialized societies and less developed countries will increase even more if we continue to innovate at the current speed. I believe the opposite to be true. Innovation can help developing countries leap frog past issues that took developed countries years to overcome, e.g. bypassing wired adsl and going straight to mobile broadband. Innovations in the developed world always help eradicate problems in the developing world and thereby speed up the development of these countries (e.g. vaccines). And because developing economies have been typically growing faster than industrialised economies, surely the gap is decreasing?
TEDCred score: 0.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.
A reply on Conversation: Change Through Imagination and Fiction: we need to communicate our ideas & visions to make them real.
A reply on Conversation: Change Through Imagination and Fiction: we need to communicate our ideas & visions to make them real.