WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.180 So I want to start off by having you just think 00:00:03.180 --> 00:00:05.820 for a second about how incredibly easy it is 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:07.820 for us to take our devices for granted today. 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:10.160 Absolutely. I mean, we really do. Right. Like 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:13.599 if you need to write an email, check a recipe, 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:16.300 or just fall down a completely random rabbit 00:00:16.300 --> 00:00:19.300 hole of trivia, you just hop online. You grab 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:21.079 a cheap Chromebook for maybe a couple hundred 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:23.320 bucks, and boom, you are instantly connected 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:25.199 to the sum total of human knowledge. Yeah, it 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.079 is essentially seamless for most of us now. Exactly. 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:30.239 But I want you to see. step back with me into 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:34.020 a very different world. Imagine the year is 2004. 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:37.079 Oh, wow. 2004. That feels like a lifetime ago 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:40.340 in tech years. It really does. In 2004, a typical 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:43.780 laptop was this, like, massive clunky machine. 00:00:43.859 --> 00:00:46.659 It ran incredibly hot. It had a battery life 00:00:46.659 --> 00:00:48.780 of, I mean, maybe an hour, if you were lucky, 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.899 and it cost well over $1 ,500. Yeah, it was very 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:53.840 much a luxury item back then, not something you 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.299 just casually buy. Right, a total luxury item. 00:00:56.299 --> 00:00:59.820 Yeah. Now, into that specific landscape of expensive, 00:00:59.939 --> 00:01:04.219 exclusive, drops this incredibly audacious idea 00:01:04.219 --> 00:01:07.739 like what if we could build a laptop for just 00:01:07.739 --> 00:01:11.599 $100 which was just unheard of at the time completely 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.819 unheard of and not just build it but Give one 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:17.480 to literally every single child in the developing 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:19.659 world. Yeah, it was a massive, just sweeping 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:22.260 proposition. Yeah. So we are looking today at 00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:25.359 an expensive Wikipedia article covering the One 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.459 Laptop Per Child initiative. Or OLPC, as it's 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:31.620 usually called, right? Exactly. OLPC. The project 00:01:31.620 --> 00:01:35.579 ran from roughly 2005 to 2014. And the mission 00:01:35.579 --> 00:01:38.299 of our deep dive right now, customized just for 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:41.640 you, is to unpack that grand vision. Which is 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.780 quite the vision to unpack. is we are going to 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:47.420 dig into the genuinely fascinating technology 00:01:47.420 --> 00:01:50.859 they built to achieve it. And well, the incredibly 00:01:50.859 --> 00:01:53.819 messy real world reality of trying to solve the 00:01:53.819 --> 00:01:57.060 deeply complex issue of global education with 00:01:57.060 --> 00:01:59.739 a piece of hardware. OK, let's unpack this because 00:01:59.739 --> 00:02:02.099 this is really an incredible story of utopian 00:02:02.099 --> 00:02:04.599 tech colliding head first with reality. Yeah, 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:06.819 it's a classic Silicon Valley mindset meeting 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:09.240 the actual world. Right. And to understand why 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:11.219 they did what they did, we have to look at where 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:14.039 the idea came from. It wasn't born in a vacuum 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:16.919 or a corporate boardroom. No, not at all. It 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.240 has its roots in the educational philosophy of 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:22.419 a man named Seymour Papert over at the MIT Media 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:24.560 Lab. Yeah, and he championed this idea called 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:27.840 constructionism. Right, and constructionism is 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:31.180 crucial to understanding the entire OLPC mindset. 00:02:31.699 --> 00:02:34.960 It is basically the belief that kids don't learn 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:37.500 best by just passively receiving information. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.500 Like, you know, just sitting at a desk while 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:41.900 a teacher lectures at them for an hour. Exactly. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.979 They learn best by actively making things. Paper 00:02:45.979 --> 00:02:49.280 really believed that kids need full digital literacy 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.060 at an early age to really learn, experiment, 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.500 and express themselves. They needed a digital 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:57.240 sandbox, essentially. And Paper had this wonderful, 00:02:57.460 --> 00:03:00.159 like, very visual critique of how schools were 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:02.460 handling computers at the time. Oh, the library 00:03:02.460 --> 00:03:05.080 analogy. Yes. He pointed out that having a locked 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:07.639 computer lab down the hall in a school was exactly 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:10.280 like how ancient libraries used to literally 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:12.460 chain valuable books to the wall. Yeah, where 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:13.900 you couldn't actually take the knowledge with 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:16.120 you. Right. You had to go to the computer, use 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:18.460 it under strict supervision for maybe 20 minutes, 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:22.020 and then leave. And he argued that personal computers 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:24.319 shouldn't be these guarded resources. They should 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.319 be as common, cheap, and accessible as shared 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:29.439 pencils. That was his whole thing. The shared 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:32.439 pencil? I just love that phrase. And that shared 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:34.620 pencil philosophy was carried forward by the 00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:38.080 founder of OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte. Who was 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:41.120 also at the MIT Media Lab, right? Yeah. And Negroponte 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.560 was, I mean, he was the ultimate evangelist. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:46.719 for this idea. Oh absolutely so he takes this 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:49.620 concept to the one economic forum in Davos in 00:03:49.620 --> 00:03:52.240 2005 and I just I want you to imagine the scene 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.659 here. It's quite the image. He is walking the 00:03:54.659 --> 00:03:57.460 halls prowling in the corridors of power with 00:03:57.460 --> 00:04:00.639 a mock -up of this $100 laptop just whipping 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:03.120 up support from world leaders and billionaires. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:06.270 And the crazy part is he actually gets it. It's 00:04:06.270 --> 00:04:08.349 amazing. He really does. He secures backing from 00:04:08.349 --> 00:04:11.069 the UN development program and from major tech 00:04:11.069 --> 00:04:14.030 giants like AMD and Google. Even Jimmy Wales 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:17.009 got on board. Yes, the founder of Wikipedia. 00:04:17.649 --> 00:04:20.389 Wales talked so passionately about, you know, 00:04:20.670 --> 00:04:23.509 freeing a child in Africa from crushing poverty 00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:26.829 simply by giving them free textbooks and reference 00:04:26.829 --> 00:04:29.449 works via this laptop. Which is a beautiful sentiment, 00:04:29.750 --> 00:04:32.319 obviously. It is, but... Honestly, looking at 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.920 that level of optimism, I have to push back a 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:36.620 little right out of the gate here. Go for it. 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:38.939 It sounds like they believed they were handing 00:04:38.939 --> 00:04:42.620 out magic wands, not just calculators. Like does 00:04:42.620 --> 00:04:45.740 just handing a child a digital encyclopedia actually 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:47.779 teach them how to read it? Well, that is the 00:04:47.779 --> 00:04:49.699 exact tension at the heart of this entire project. 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:52.240 Yeah. Yeah. But to understand their mindset, 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:55.779 you really have to realize that the founders 00:04:55.779 --> 00:04:59.199 genuinely, fundamentally believed in self -guided 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:00.930 learning. Okay, so they thought the kids would 00:05:00.930 --> 00:05:03.230 just figure it out. Exactly. They thought the 00:05:03.230 --> 00:05:05.410 barrier wasn't a lack of instruction or teachers. 00:05:05.810 --> 00:05:08.310 They believed the sole barrier was simply access. 00:05:08.509 --> 00:05:10.910 Wow. And what's fascinating here is how that 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:14.069 unshakable belief completely drove the engineering. 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:17.750 Nigroponte knew that to make this dream a reality, 00:05:17.949 --> 00:05:20.389 you know, to get the cost down to $100, they 00:05:20.389 --> 00:05:22.529 couldn't just shrink a normal laptop. Because 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:24.329 the components were just too expensive. Right. 00:05:24.449 --> 00:05:26.470 The biggest cost of any computer at the time 00:05:26.470 --> 00:05:29.810 was the display. The screen. Oh, sure. The LCDs 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:33.310 were super pricey. Exactly. So the viability 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:35.910 of the whole project practically hinged on this 00:05:35.910 --> 00:05:39.129 display pioneer, Mary Lou Jepson. She joined 00:05:39.129 --> 00:05:42.910 the MIT Media Lab faculty in 2005, and she innovated 00:05:42.910 --> 00:05:45.129 a totally new kind of screen technology. And 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:47.250 this wasn't just slightly cheaper. It was radically 00:05:47.250 --> 00:05:49.350 different. Radically different. It was vastly 00:05:49.350 --> 00:05:51.670 cheaper to produce, and it could even be read 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:54.850 in direct, glaring sunlight. which was a huge 00:05:54.850 --> 00:05:57.129 deal for where these were going. And that transition 00:05:57.129 --> 00:06:00.089 from standard tech to radical innovation is really 00:06:00.089 --> 00:06:02.370 where the project takes shape. Because to achieve 00:06:02.370 --> 00:06:04.970 that constructionist dream, they had to throw 00:06:04.970 --> 00:06:07.389 out the entire tech playbook. They really did. 00:06:07.649 --> 00:06:09.750 They couldn't use off the shelf parts from companies 00:06:09.750 --> 00:06:12.980 like Dell or HP. No, they had to completely reinvent 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:14.740 the laptop from the ground up for a child in 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:17.920 a remote village. Exactly. And this became the 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:21.000 X01. The X01. And the physical design was handled 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.720 by Yves Behar. And, I mean, it was... Iconic 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:27.959 instantly recognizable this bright green and 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:31.199 white super durable plastic clamshell with those 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.120 two Wi -Fi antennas that popped up on the sides 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:37.040 like rabbit ears Yeah, look like a toy, but the 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.500 internal specs on this thing. They are wild for 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:42.019 the time They really are first of all it was 00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:45.910 rugged eyes to handle drops and dust And they 00:06:45.910 --> 00:06:47.910 didn't use a standard hard drive at all. No, 00:06:48.009 --> 00:06:50.089 they used flash memory. Yeah. And we should probably 00:06:50.089 --> 00:06:52.110 explain why that matters. Yeah, let's break that 00:06:52.110 --> 00:06:55.029 down for people who might not know 2004 computer 00:06:55.029 --> 00:06:57.370 hardware. Right. So think of a traditional hard 00:06:57.370 --> 00:07:00.410 drive from 2004, like a tiny record player inside 00:07:00.410 --> 00:07:02.529 your computer. I'll say a record player. It has 00:07:02.529 --> 00:07:04.629 a physical disk that is spinning at really high 00:07:04.629 --> 00:07:07.329 speeds and a little mechanical arm that reads 00:07:07.329 --> 00:07:10.240 the data. If you drop a laptop while that disk 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:13.379 is spinning, the arm literally crashes into the 00:07:13.379 --> 00:07:15.800 disk and your data is permanently destroyed. 00:07:16.139 --> 00:07:17.959 Which is a disaster if you're handing this to 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:20.399 an eight -year -old. Exactly. But Flash memory 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:23.560 has zero moving parts. It's exactly like the 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:26.560 storage in your smartphone today. By using Flash, 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:29.579 the X01 became incredibly durable. That makes 00:07:29.579 --> 00:07:31.879 total sense. And they also built a custom Linux 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:34.579 operating system for it, right? Yeah, with a 00:07:34.579 --> 00:07:36.910 totally unique user interface called Sugar. Sugar, 00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:40.089 which was wild because it didn't use the standard 00:07:40.089 --> 00:07:43.129 desktop folders and files metaphor that we are 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:45.689 also used to in Windows or Mac. No, it didn't 00:07:45.689 --> 00:07:47.610 look like a standard PC at all. Right. It was 00:07:47.610 --> 00:07:50.009 entirely centered around activities and collaborating 00:07:50.009 --> 00:07:52.009 with other kids. Yeah, it was very communal. 00:07:52.509 --> 00:07:55.250 But beyond the software, the power efficiency 00:07:55.250 --> 00:07:57.670 of this thing was just mind blowing. Oh, I had 00:07:57.670 --> 00:07:59.629 to be right. They were designing for regions 00:07:59.629 --> 00:08:02.089 with severely limited electricity. Or sometimes 00:08:02.089 --> 00:08:05.110 no power grid at all. So the X01 drew only 0 00:08:05.110 --> 00:08:08.850 .25 to 6 .5 watts in normal operation. Wait, 00:08:08.930 --> 00:08:12.490 wow. Just up to 6 .5 watts? Yeah. To give you 00:08:12.490 --> 00:08:14.389 some context, standard laptops at the time were 00:08:14.389 --> 00:08:17.389 pulling 30 to 40 watts. That is a massive difference. 00:08:17.730 --> 00:08:20.269 Massive. And because of this, it was actually 00:08:20.269 --> 00:08:23.870 the very first laptop to be awarded an EPET gold 00:08:23.870 --> 00:08:25.970 rating, which basically meant it was entirely 00:08:25.970 --> 00:08:28.910 nontoxic and fully recyclable. That is incredible. 00:08:29.069 --> 00:08:31.069 But I think my favorite feature, and this is 00:08:31.069 --> 00:08:34.070 just so clever, was the mobile ad hoc networking. 00:08:34.529 --> 00:08:37.769 They used this early wireless mesh protocol called 00:08:37.769 --> 00:08:41.110 802 .11n. Oh, the mesh network is a brilliant 00:08:41.110 --> 00:08:43.490 piece of engineering. Can you explain how that 00:08:43.490 --> 00:08:46.409 worked compared to normal Wi -Fi? Sure. So instead 00:08:46.409 --> 00:08:49.149 of every single laptop needing a direct individual 00:08:49.149 --> 00:08:51.389 pipe to the Internet. which is how our home Wi 00:08:51.389 --> 00:08:54.210 -Fi routers work. Mesh networking acts more like 00:08:54.210 --> 00:08:56.289 a bucket brigade. A bucket brigade, okay. Yeah, 00:08:56.289 --> 00:08:59.210 so if just one kid's house happens to be near 00:08:59.210 --> 00:09:01.649 the school internet connection, their laptop 00:09:01.649 --> 00:09:03.990 beams the signal to the next kid's house. Then 00:09:03.990 --> 00:09:06.429 that laptop passes it to the next, sharing that 00:09:06.429 --> 00:09:08.750 single connection across a wide area with all 00:09:08.750 --> 00:09:11.330 the other laptops in the village. That is genuinely 00:09:11.330 --> 00:09:13.710 brilliant for places with terrible infrastructure. 00:09:13.789 --> 00:09:16.509 It really was. But here's where it gets really 00:09:16.509 --> 00:09:18.649 interesting, though. Because they were designing 00:09:18.649 --> 00:09:21.870 for environments with essentially zero infrastructure, 00:09:22.809 --> 00:09:25.470 early prototypes of the X01 actually featured 00:09:25.470 --> 00:09:29.210 a hand crank. Yes. A literal hand crank attached 00:09:29.210 --> 00:09:31.909 to the side to generate power. Just cranking 00:09:31.909 --> 00:09:35.070 it up like an old radio. Yes. Now the crank ultimately 00:09:35.070 --> 00:09:38.389 proved unviable, right? Because the physical 00:09:38.389 --> 00:09:41.169 stress of cranking it was actually breaking the 00:09:41.169 --> 00:09:43.250 power jacks on the laptops. Yeah, it was just 00:09:43.250 --> 00:09:45.049 too much torque for the casing so they had to 00:09:45.049 --> 00:09:47.000 scrap it for the final version. But just think 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:48.899 about that design brief. It's like they were 00:09:48.899 --> 00:09:51.460 designing a spaceship for a completely different 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:55.100 planet, combining futuristic wireless mesh networks 00:09:55.100 --> 00:09:58.500 with a 19th century hand crank. It really is 00:09:58.500 --> 00:10:01.000 a crazy juxtaposition. Oh, and we can't forget 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.679 it also had a security feature called Bitfrost. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:06.299 Right. Bitfrost. What was the deal with that? 00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:08.419 Well, Bitfrost is a great example of the unique 00:10:08.419 --> 00:10:10.779 challenges they faced because, you know, how 00:10:10.779 --> 00:10:13.360 do you prevent warlords or corrupt officials 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:15.759 from just stealing a massive shipment of lap 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:17.759 meant for kids and selling them on the black 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:20.379 market. That is a very real problem. Exactly. 00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:23.919 So Bitfrost functioned like a digital dead man's 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.720 switch. The laptop had to periodically contact 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:29.320 a central server at the local school to renew 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:31.659 a cryptographic lease token. Okay, so it had 00:10:31.659 --> 00:10:34.279 to check in. Right. And if the laptop didn't 00:10:34.279 --> 00:10:36.720 check in within a certain time frame, it just 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.019 assumed it was stolen and completely locked itself 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:41.460 down at the hardware level. Wow. Yeah, it essentially 00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:43.639 turned into a useless green brick. I mean the 00:10:43.639 --> 00:10:46.350 engineering there is undeniably brilliant. But 00:10:46.350 --> 00:10:49.590 that spaceship analogy holds up, I think, because 00:10:49.590 --> 00:10:51.750 it highlights a massive blind spot they had. 00:10:51.870 --> 00:10:55.309 How so? Well, by designing for this generalized, 00:10:55.649 --> 00:10:58.450 imagined, developing world archetype, they created 00:10:58.450 --> 00:11:01.590 an incredibly nonstandard machine. It was just 00:11:01.590 --> 00:11:04.470 completely alien to the existing tech ecosystem. 00:11:05.009 --> 00:11:07.009 And that is the critical pivot of the whole story. 00:11:07.129 --> 00:11:09.029 You know, you can engineer a brilliant machine 00:11:09.029 --> 00:11:12.210 in a pristine lab at MIT, but you cannot engineer 00:11:12.210 --> 00:11:15.360 global economics. Right. As soon as the X01 moved 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:18.159 from the lab to actual production, they hit a 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:20.320 massive financial wall. Right, because for all 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.139 the famous branding of the $100 laptop, the price 00:11:23.139 --> 00:11:26.700 never actually hit $100. No, it didn't. It hovered 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:29.539 above $200 for most of its life. And you really 00:11:29.539 --> 00:11:30.980 have to look at who they were trying to sell 00:11:30.980 --> 00:11:35.019 this to. In 2013, more than 10 % of the world's 00:11:35.019 --> 00:11:37.539 population lived on less than two US dollars 00:11:37.539 --> 00:11:39.820 a day. Yeah, the math just gets brutal here. 00:11:40.059 --> 00:11:44.059 It does. Buying a $200 laptop for one child would 00:11:44.059 --> 00:11:47.259 cost a quarter of a family's entire annual income. 00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:50.019 It fundamentally breaks the budget of these nations. 00:11:50.299 --> 00:11:53.480 Absolutely. Exactly. Globally, the average spending 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:55.759 on information and communications technology, 00:11:56.019 --> 00:11:59.940 or ICT, is just 3 % of a person's income. And 00:11:59.940 --> 00:12:02.659 if we connect this to the bigger picture, economists 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.220 basically divide things into necessity goods 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:08.139 and luxury goods. Okay. For technology in developing 00:12:08.139 --> 00:12:11.159 nations, empirical studies show that once a device 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:14.210 costs more than about $10 per person per month 00:12:14.210 --> 00:12:18.889 or $120 a year. It crosses a psychological and 00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:21.490 economic line. Oh, wow. Yeah. It moves from being 00:12:21.490 --> 00:12:24.769 a necessity into a luxury good. So at over $200, 00:12:25.169 --> 00:12:28.090 the X01 was literally a luxury good being marketed 00:12:28.090 --> 00:12:30.909 to developing governments as a baseline educational 00:12:30.909 --> 00:12:34.549 necessity. Which brings up a really sharp practical 00:12:34.549 --> 00:12:36.750 critique from John Wood. Oh, the Room to Read 00:12:36.750 --> 00:12:38.809 guy. Yeah. He's the founder of Room to Read, 00:12:38.950 --> 00:12:41.289 which is a nonprofit that builds actual schools 00:12:41.289 --> 00:12:44.649 and libraries. And he looked at OLPC and pointed 00:12:44.649 --> 00:12:47.690 out the sheer lack of scale. Right. He was very 00:12:47.690 --> 00:12:49.870 critical of the economics. Very. He said, look, 00:12:50.269 --> 00:12:53.929 for $2 ,000, I can build a physical library that 00:12:53.929 --> 00:12:57.210 serves 400 children with physical books in their 00:12:57.210 --> 00:12:59.190 local language. And if you do the math on that. 00:12:59.529 --> 00:13:04.509 That is $5 a child. And he said, for $10 ,000, 00:13:04.610 --> 00:13:08.509 you can build a whole school for 500 kids. That's 00:13:08.509 --> 00:13:11.950 $20 a child. So at $200 for a single laptop, 00:13:12.190 --> 00:13:14.049 the math just doesn't work for these countries 00:13:14.049 --> 00:13:16.220 at all. It really doesn't. It's like dropping 00:13:16.220 --> 00:13:18.899 a brand new sports car into a village, but nobody 00:13:18.899 --> 00:13:21.419 can afford the gas. Nobody knows how to drive 00:13:21.419 --> 00:13:23.440 it. And meanwhile, you know, the village just 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:25.379 really needed a bridge to get their crops to 00:13:25.379 --> 00:13:28.000 the market. It really is an issue of misplaced 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.899 priorities. And this was actually echoed loudly 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:34.580 at a UN summit in 2005. African representatives 00:13:34.580 --> 00:13:37.179 pointed out directly to Negroponte that clean 00:13:37.179 --> 00:13:41.120 water, sanitation and physical schools were far 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:45.009 more urgent needs than a laptop. OLPC still needed 00:13:45.009 --> 00:13:46.809 to fund production, right? They had to bring 00:13:46.809 --> 00:13:49.269 the cost down through scale. Exactly. They needed 00:13:49.269 --> 00:13:52.389 volume. So they tried a consumer campaign called 00:13:52.389 --> 00:13:56.330 Give One, Get One in late 2007. Oh, I remember 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:59.590 this. The idea was that for about $400, someone 00:13:59.590 --> 00:14:02.269 in North America could buy an X01 for themselves, 00:14:02.610 --> 00:14:04.730 and a second one would automatically be donated 00:14:04.730 --> 00:14:06.809 to a child in the developing world. Yeah, it 00:14:06.809 --> 00:14:09.049 was a very clever model. And it was initially 00:14:09.049 --> 00:14:12.389 quite successful. Over 83 ,000 people participated 00:14:12.389 --> 00:14:14.929 in that first run. That's a lot of lifetops. 00:14:15.129 --> 00:14:17.750 It was. It generated a lot of capital. So naturally, 00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:19.570 they tried to replicate that success. They ran 00:14:19.570 --> 00:14:22.370 a second Give One Get One program in late 2008. 00:14:22.610 --> 00:14:24.669 And they even partnered with Amazon this time 00:14:24.669 --> 00:14:27.009 to solve some massive shipping delays they'd 00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:28.870 experienced the first time around. But the second 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:31.710 run absolutely crashed, didn't it? It was a disaster. 00:14:32.230 --> 00:14:36.389 Sales dropped by a staggering 93%. 93 %? Wait, 00:14:36.450 --> 00:14:40.639 really? Yes. sold about 12 ,500 laptops. Why 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:43.360 such a massive drop? Was it just the 2008 financial 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.200 crisis hitting everyone? Well, the financial 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:48.059 crisis certainly tightened people's wallets, 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:50.179 yeah, but it was also a combination of factors. 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:52.940 Like what? The initial shipping delays from the 00:14:52.940 --> 00:14:55.759 first campaign had really frustrated early buyers. 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:58.919 Plus, the tech press had kind of moved on, and 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.200 simply put, the novelty had just worn off. The 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:05.059 early adopters already had their cool green laptops, 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:07.620 and the broader public just wasn't interested 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:10.799 in spending $400 on an underpowered machine just 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:13.570 for a charitable donation. So because funding 00:15:13.570 --> 00:15:15.789 dried up from the consumer side and these machines 00:15:15.789 --> 00:15:18.809 were still hovering at that $200 mark, governments 00:15:18.809 --> 00:15:21.149 had to spend massive chunks of their education 00:15:21.149 --> 00:15:24.169 budgets just to acquire the hardware. Yes. Which 00:15:24.169 --> 00:15:26.309 meant there was very little budget left over 00:15:26.309 --> 00:15:28.850 for actual implementation. And this is where 00:15:28.850 --> 00:15:31.529 the hardware directly impacts the human element. 00:15:31.690 --> 00:15:33.009 You know, you can't just buy the hardware. You 00:15:33.009 --> 00:15:35.070 have to train people how to actually use it. 00:15:35.070 --> 00:15:38.809 Right. But that severe lack of budget led directly 00:15:38.809 --> 00:15:40.789 to the most controversial aspect of the whole 00:15:40.789 --> 00:15:44.120 project. their deployment strategy. The drive 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:46.460 -by deployment. Yeah. That's what critics called 00:15:46.460 --> 00:15:49.539 it. Because this is where the OLPC teams or local 00:15:49.539 --> 00:15:52.360 governments would literally hand kids these laptops 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:55.080 and just walk away. Like, no teacher training, 00:15:55.740 --> 00:15:58.220 no curriculum integration, no technical support. 00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:01.340 Which sounds crazy, but Nigroponte actually defended 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:05.039 this. He doubled down on Papert's self -guided 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:07.019 learning idea, saying, you know, you actually 00:16:07.019 --> 00:16:09.320 can just give a kid a connected laptop and walk 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:11.700 away. They will figure it out. But the reality 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:14.139 on the ground was harsh, right? It was unforgiving. 00:16:14.659 --> 00:16:17.139 Without support, the breakage rate was massive. 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:20.320 Massive. Yeah. Between 27 and 59 percent of the 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:22.860 laptops broke within the first two years of deployment 00:16:22.860 --> 00:16:25.360 in some areas. And even when they weren't physically 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:28.500 broken, the software implementation was an absolute 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:31.850 nightmare for the educators. Let's look at Peru, 00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:33.649 because that was one of the major deployment 00:16:33.649 --> 00:16:36.350 areas. Researchers there found what they called 00:16:36.350 --> 00:16:39.230 a blackboxing approach. Right, and blackboxing 00:16:39.230 --> 00:16:41.929 essentially means treating the technology as 00:16:41.929 --> 00:16:45.509 this closed, mysterious system that you shouldn't 00:16:45.509 --> 00:16:48.129 even try to understand. Which is the exact opposite 00:16:48.129 --> 00:16:51.759 of constructionism. Exactly. Teachers in Peru 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:54.419 were given almost zero training. They were basically 00:16:54.419 --> 00:16:56.840 told, hey, if there's a software bug, just flash 00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:59.179 the computer and wipe the whole thing. Oh my 00:16:59.179 --> 00:17:01.299 God. And if there's a hardware bug, report it 00:17:01.299 --> 00:17:04.240 to a centralized technician who might show up 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:06.720 months later. I just think about you, the listener, 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:09.000 right? Think about how frustrated you get when 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:11.339 your home Wi -Fi drops for 10 minutes and you 00:17:11.339 --> 00:17:13.859 can't figure out why. It's infuriating. Now imagine 00:17:13.859 --> 00:17:16.460 being a teacher in a rural Peruvian village. 00:17:16.819 --> 00:17:19.220 You've possibly never even used a computer before. 00:17:19.609 --> 00:17:22.569 Suddenly, you have 30 kids staring at you because 00:17:22.569 --> 00:17:24.609 their completely alien operating systems are 00:17:24.609 --> 00:17:26.910 frozen and you've been told your only option 00:17:26.910 --> 00:17:29.630 is to completely wipe their hard drives. It's 00:17:29.630 --> 00:17:32.700 a recipe for disaster. It left teachers feeling 00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:34.819 completely disconnected and resentful of the 00:17:34.819 --> 00:17:37.400 devices, which led to the laptops just sitting 00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:39.779 locked in a closet. I really have to push back 00:17:39.779 --> 00:17:42.480 hard on Negroponte's walk -away defense here. 00:17:42.579 --> 00:17:45.000 I mean, is it really fair to expect an eight 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:47.579 -year -old to self -teach a brand -new operating 00:17:47.579 --> 00:17:49.579 system when the teacher themselves can't even 00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:52.480 plug the thing in? No. Especially because that 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:55.750 was another glaring design flaw. The X01 had 00:17:55.750 --> 00:17:58.910 absolutely no external monitor connectivity. 00:17:59.150 --> 00:18:01.569 Right. There was no video out port at all. So 00:18:01.569 --> 00:18:04.230 a teacher couldn't hook it up to a projector 00:18:04.230 --> 00:18:06.710 or a TV to show the class how to do something 00:18:06.710 --> 00:18:09.450 together. It was completely individualized. It 00:18:09.450 --> 00:18:12.670 forced isolation. Yeah. Plus that bit frost security 00:18:12.670 --> 00:18:14.609 system we mentioned earlier. Yeah. The digital 00:18:14.609 --> 00:18:16.609 dead man switch. Yeah. The anti -theft thing. 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:19.759 It was incredibly buggy in the real world. Because 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:22.200 rural schools often lost internet connectivity 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:24.500 for days at a time, laptops couldn't ping the 00:18:24.500 --> 00:18:27.519 server to renew their tokens. Oh, no. So what 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.240 happened? BitFrost would improperly lock down 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:32.960 thousands of laptops, turning them into bricks 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.380 until a specialized technician could travel all 00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:37.839 the way out to the village and manually unlock 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:40.519 them. That is just heartbreaking. It highlights 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:42.559 a fundamental misunderstanding of education. 00:18:42.859 --> 00:18:45.960 The hardware was designed exclusively for the 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:49.019 isolated student, and it completely ignored the 00:18:49.019 --> 00:18:51.740 complex ecosystem of the classroom. It ignored 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:54.180 the teacher completely. Right. It ignored the 00:18:54.180 --> 00:18:56.960 crucial role of the teacher as a mentor, a guide, 00:18:57.059 --> 00:19:00.640 and a facilitator. A laptop is just not a substitute 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:04.420 for pedagogy. And as these bugs piled up and 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:06.519 as large -scale adoption by government stalled 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:09.400 out, OLPC found itself in a really desperate 00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:11.960 financial position. They needed to move units 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:14.839 to survive. Desperately. And that desperation 00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:17.240 led to a compromise that fractured the very core 00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:19.519 of their identity. The open -source riff. Yeah, 00:19:19.559 --> 00:19:21.759 this gets incredibly dramatic in the tech community. 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:23.980 It does. Originally, the whole project was fiercely 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:26.019 built on an open -source ESOS. It was supported 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:28.259 by groups like Red Hat and the Free Software 00:19:28.259 --> 00:19:30.420 Foundation. Which was a huge point of pride for 00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:33.200 them. Huge. The idea was that the software code 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.779 should be completely free and modifiable. The 00:19:35.779 --> 00:19:38.500 Sugar OS even had this dedicated button where 00:19:38.500 --> 00:19:41.299 a kid could look at the actual Python code running 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:43.460 the program they were using and change it. That 00:19:43.460 --> 00:19:45.599 is true constructionism right there. Look under 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:49.359 the hood and tinker. Exactly. But in 2008, facing 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.099 immense pressure to appease large institutional 00:19:52.099 --> 00:19:54.559 purchasers who, you know, they wanted familiar 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:57.470 software, Microsoft steps in. Yep. Microsoft 00:19:57.470 --> 00:20:00.250 offered to put a modified version of Windows 00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:04.490 XP on the XO laptops for an extra $10 per unit, 00:20:04.769 --> 00:20:08.089 which they later dropped to $3. And OLPC actually 00:20:08.089 --> 00:20:10.250 agreed to this. They did. They even developed 00:20:10.250 --> 00:20:12.730 special firmware so the laptops could dual boot, 00:20:13.089 --> 00:20:15.069 meaning the user could choose to start up in 00:20:15.069 --> 00:20:18.210 either the proprietary Windows or the open source 00:20:18.210 --> 00:20:20.490 Sugar OS. But the fallout from this within the 00:20:20.490 --> 00:20:22.490 tech community was immediate and just severe. 00:20:22.869 --> 00:20:24.809 Walter Bender, who is the president of software 00:20:24.809 --> 00:20:27.500 and content for OLPC, the guy championing the 00:20:27.500 --> 00:20:30.180 sugar interface, he straight up resigned over 00:20:30.180 --> 00:20:32.200 this compromise. He left to form Sugar Labs on 00:20:32.200 --> 00:20:34.559 his own, yeah. Open source advocates are absolutely 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:37.380 furious. You had highly influential figures like 00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:40.460 Theodor Rath from the OpenBSD project heavily 00:20:40.460 --> 00:20:44.200 criticizing OLPC. He accused them of using proprietary 00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:46.920 firmware and hiding documentation. And I think 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:49.240 Raponte's defense was purely pragmatic here. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:51.859 He argued that the ultimate end goal was getting 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:54.880 kids to learn, not maintaining some open source 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:57.960 ideology. He said the religious war over software 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:01.000 had become a distraction. But you have to wonder, 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:03.579 did they essentially sell out their open source 00:21:03.579 --> 00:21:06.680 soul just to move units? It feels like starting 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:09.480 a strict vegan restaurant, building your entire 00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:12.059 brand identity around ethical eating, and then 00:21:12.059 --> 00:21:14.660 when revenue dips, offering a secret menu of 00:21:14.660 --> 00:21:16.779 cheap cheeseburgers just to boost your sales 00:21:16.779 --> 00:21:19.349 numbers. That's a great analogy. And this raises 00:21:19.349 --> 00:21:22.250 an important question for any massive tech rollout, 00:21:22.390 --> 00:21:25.569 the tension between pure ideological goals and 00:21:25.569 --> 00:21:28.109 the messy practical demands of widespread distribution. 00:21:28.650 --> 00:21:30.950 Absolutely. But here is the ultimate bitter irony 00:21:30.950 --> 00:21:34.309 of that entire open source battle. Almost no 00:21:34.309 --> 00:21:36.490 significant government deployments ever actually 00:21:36.490 --> 00:21:38.809 chose to buy the Windows licenses anyway. Wait, 00:21:38.809 --> 00:21:41.849 really? After all that drama? After all that. 00:21:42.450 --> 00:21:44.970 The whole ideological compromise, which literally 00:21:44.970 --> 00:21:47.369 tore the organization apart, was essentially 00:21:47.369 --> 00:21:49.940 for nothing. Wow. OK, let's look at the actual 00:21:49.940 --> 00:21:54.240 numbers then. After all of this, after the brilliant 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:56.839 out -of -the -box engineering, the failure to 00:21:56.839 --> 00:21:59.619 hit the $100 price target, the lack of teacher 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:02.460 training, the ideological civil wars we have 00:22:02.460 --> 00:22:05.119 to look at the end user, the kids. Right. Did 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:08.339 it actually work? Exactly. Did the One Laptop 00:22:08.339 --> 00:22:11.299 Per Child project actually improve education? 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:14.440 Well, if we look at the hard data, the academic 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:17.500 results are sobering. Let's look back at Peru. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.740 A massive 10 -year randomized study of 531 rural 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:24.259 schools was conducted to see the long -term impact. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:26.339 And what did they find? The study found absolutely 00:22:26.339 --> 00:22:28.680 no significant effects on math or reading scores. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:30.660 Yeah. It didn't improve primary school completion 00:22:30.660 --> 00:22:33.420 rates, secondary completion rates, or university 00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:35.799 enrollment. Ten years of data and no academic 00:22:35.799 --> 00:22:38.839 improvement whatsoever. Why was it such a flatline? 00:22:39.220 --> 00:22:41.579 Primarily because the laptops were entirely disconnected 00:22:41.579 --> 00:22:43.799 from the curriculum. The software was in Spanish, 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:46.359 but many kids in rural Peru spoke indigenous 00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:48.440 languages. Oh man, so they couldn't even read 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:51.299 the interface. Sometimes, yeah. And the teachers 00:22:51.299 --> 00:22:53.039 weren't trained to integrate the laptops into 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:55.380 lessons anyway, so the kids mostly just used 00:22:55.380 --> 00:22:57.519 them to play games or use the calculator app. 00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:01.890 That is heavy. But what about Uruguay? because 00:23:01.890 --> 00:23:03.470 they took a totally different approach. They 00:23:03.470 --> 00:23:06.390 went all in. Yes. Uruguay launched Plan Siebel. 00:23:06.750 --> 00:23:09.230 They were the first country in the world to purchase 00:23:09.230 --> 00:23:12.609 enough laptops to give one to every single primary 00:23:12.609 --> 00:23:15.869 school child. Which is a massive logistical undertaking. 00:23:16.269 --> 00:23:18.589 Massive. It ended up costing the state about 00:23:18.589 --> 00:23:22.109 $260 per child when you factored in maintenance, 00:23:22.289 --> 00:23:24.410 training, and rolling out the internet access. 00:23:24.630 --> 00:23:26.759 And the results there? Are they better? They 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:29.859 are highly debated. A 2013 study from the University 00:23:29.859 --> 00:23:32.400 of the Republic in Uruguay evaluated the early 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:34.839 years of the program. They found no measurable 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:37.940 impact on reading or math scores and noted very 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:41.640 similarly to Peru that the usage was mostly recreational 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:44.000 outside of school. But didn't they keep the program 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.259 running? They did. And the program evolved over 00:23:47.259 --> 00:23:50.700 time. A more recent 2020 study by the Broadband 00:23:50.700 --> 00:23:53.519 Commission for Sustainable Development took a 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:55.980 longer view and actually called the project a 00:23:55.980 --> 00:23:59.259 success, citing increased digital literacy and 00:23:59.259 --> 00:24:02.839 much better integration over a decade. OK, so 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:05.099 depending on how you measure it, the academic 00:24:05.099 --> 00:24:08.740 verdict is mixed at best and definitively negative 00:24:08.740 --> 00:24:11.599 at worst. Yeah. That's a fair assessment. And 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:13.460 some countries just looked at all of this and 00:24:13.460 --> 00:24:16.359 said no from the very start. India's Ministry 00:24:16.359 --> 00:24:18.940 of Human Resource Development completely rejected 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:21.599 the OLPC initiative. They called it a debatable 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:23.779 scheme. Yeah, they said it would siphon crucial 00:24:23.779 --> 00:24:26.640 funding away from basic infrastructure like desks 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:29.619 and chalkboards. But interestingly, the idea 00:24:29.619 --> 00:24:32.140 sparked something in India. It did show them 00:24:32.140 --> 00:24:33.960 a different path. They decided to try and build 00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:36.579 their own ultra cheap device. They aimed for 00:24:36.579 --> 00:24:39.700 an unbelievable $10 price point. Which is just 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:42.200 crazy. I know. They eventually hit about $100 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:45.319 and later developed a $35 touchscreen device 00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:47.779 called the Akash tablet for students. Which kind 00:24:47.779 --> 00:24:50.819 of hints at the real lasting legacy of OLPC. 00:24:51.299 --> 00:24:54.599 Right. The hardware design part of OLTC officially 00:24:54.599 --> 00:24:57.099 shut down in 2014, but they proved something 00:24:57.099 --> 00:24:59.240 massive to the tech industry, didn't they? They 00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:01.599 absolutely did. And this is the project's ultimate 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:05.279 paradox. It failed in its primary metric academic 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:07.680 improvement because it fundamentally treated 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.740 a deeply complex social and pedagogical problem 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:13.960 as just a hardware problem. Yeah. But it succeeded 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:17.299 in proving that low -cost, low -power, durable 00:25:17.299 --> 00:25:20.950 hardware could actually be built. Before OLPC, 00:25:21.490 --> 00:25:24.450 major manufacturers thought a $200 laptop was 00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:27.710 physically impossible. OLPC forced the entire 00:25:27.710 --> 00:25:30.210 industry to rethink what a computer could be. 00:25:30.430 --> 00:25:32.029 So what does this all mean? When you look at 00:25:32.029 --> 00:25:35.009 the X01, it was essentially like a wildly ambitious 00:25:35.009 --> 00:25:37.490 concept car. Yeah, the sports car analogy again. 00:25:37.670 --> 00:25:39.670 Right, it didn't solve traffic and the controls 00:25:39.670 --> 00:25:41.670 were too weird for most people to drive, but 00:25:41.670 --> 00:25:44.140 it completely changed how... Every other manufacturer 00:25:44.140 --> 00:25:46.079 on the planet thought about fuel efficiency and 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:49.180 aerodynamics. Absolutely. The X01 directly inspired 00:25:49.180 --> 00:25:51.759 the massive netbook craze of the late 2000s, 00:25:51.779 --> 00:25:54.539 you know, the Asus EPCs. And yes, the cheap, 00:25:54.819 --> 00:25:57.000 ubiquitous Chromebooks that so many schools rely 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:00.400 on today. Exactly. It completely reshaped the 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:02.799 consumer electronics market, even if it didn't 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:04.960 reshape the classroom in the utopian way they 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.200 originally envisioned. Which brings us back to 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:10.779 you listening right now. Why should you care 00:26:10.779 --> 00:26:15.180 about a defunct bright green laptop project from 00:26:15.180 --> 00:26:18.079 two decades ago. It's a valid question. Because 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:21.539 when you are evaluating any sweeping new technological 00:26:21.539 --> 00:26:24.240 promise today, whether it's artificial intelligence 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:26.519 in the classroom or virtual reality headsets 00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:28.700 or whatever the next big Silicon Valley pitch 00:26:28.700 --> 00:26:31.440 is, this story is the ultimate reminder that 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:34.519 technology is merely a tool. It is not a teacher. 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:36.920 You cannot just drop a piece of hardware into 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:39.720 a complex fragile social environment and expect 00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:42.220 a miracle to happen on its own. It requires deep 00:26:42.220 --> 00:26:44.539 infrastructure, it requires continuous training, 00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:46.960 and most importantly, it requires a fundamental 00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.660 understanding of the human element that actually 00:26:49.660 --> 00:26:52.099 operates the machine. Exactly. So I want to leave 00:26:52.099 --> 00:26:53.920 you with a final thought to mull over as you 00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:57.039 go about your day. The One Laptop Per Child project 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:00.000 is widely remembered in tech circles as a massive 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.259 failure. A very expensive one too. Very. Yet 00:27:03.259 --> 00:27:05.599 it directly inspired the cheap, durable tablets 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:08.259 and netbooks that actually did go on to democratize 00:27:08.259 --> 00:27:12.140 computing worldwide. So does true innovation 00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:15.440 actually require an initial, spectacular, overly 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:18.839 ambitious failure? Do we need these utopian dreamers 00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:21.460 to absorb all the massive risks, attempt the 00:27:21.460 --> 00:27:23.640 impossible, and take all the arrows just to pave 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:25.720 the way for the practical, boring technology 00:27:25.720 --> 00:27:28.079 we rely on today? Like that cheap Chromebook 00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:30.480 sitting on your desk. A genuinely fascinating 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:32.549 question. joining us on this deep dive.