TTC #265 Connectivity Is Important As Water

Published: April 18, 2016, 6:18 p.m.

Dr. Michail Bletsas, Research Scientist & the Director of Computing at MIT\u2019s Media Lab was one of the founding members of the \u2018One Laptop Per Child\u2019 initiative, in 2005. He is a strong proponent of Connectivity, as he considers it is as necessary as our water supply; it provides the basis for communication, which he firmly believes distinguishes us humans from other complex species on this planet; it acted as the primary catalyst to help us \u201cinvent\u201d social networking, law, religion, democracy and currency. He talks about the emerging, telephony and mobile, convergence; the EU and USA research environments versus that of China\u2019s, and how the latter\u2019s lack of institutions may prove critical in the failure or success equation. Finally, he discusses the OLPC legacy, as the result of an elaborate demo, conducted by MIT, ever. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.