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A comment on Teacher in Ghana has no computers so he draws Microsoft Word on the blackboard. Parent comment

Re:Teacher in Ghana has no computers so he draws Microsoft W... by factsaresacred on Saturday March 03, 2018 @03:34AM (#16508466)
I'm with you on the absurdity of the West. The isolation, sterility and atomisation of life in large cities (self service checkouts, lack of street life/physicality, laws wrapped in regulations wrapped in rules) is soul destroying.

But we live until 80, our institutions work, we want for little (materially), and trust is higher. So depends on what you value.

Africa doesn't have to emulate anybody. It can move up the human development index any way it pleases, but, for the sake of its people, it must move up.

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Re:Teacher in Ghana has no computers so he draws Microsoft W... by lozenge on Saturday March 03, 2018 @05:47AM (#16508731)
Do you miss queuing up to withdraw money or check the balance of your bank account? I don't see how self service checkouts are philosophically different from ATMs.
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Re:Teacher in Ghana has no computers so he draws Microsoft W... by factsaresacred on Saturday March 03, 2018 @06:38AM (#16508860)
No, I love the convenience! I'm just using it as an example of how we continue to automate away human interaction.

Maybe that's fine. But spend time in Africa or South East Asia where you can't help but interact with people every day (just walking through a city like Bangkok makes you feel alive) and it feels clinical and cold by comparison.

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