If you could save the world, what would you do?
How would you save it?
Where would you start?
Let me share the views of a few folks... see if you agree or get inspired. Listen:
- "With our love, we could save the world." George Harrison
- "Music will save the world." Pablo Casals
- "The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does." Allen Ginsberg
- "I feel that it's our children who do give us hope because they are the ones who are going to save the world." Blythe Danner
Food for thought... and one more, so you can start thinking about what will not save the world:
- "I do not think wrestling is going to save the world." Billy Corgan
Now here's the thing...
Mark Zuckerberg, as part of a consortium that created Internet.org, believes that getting everyone in the world online is the only solution.
It's important to read his interview and the white paper on the topic. Many question the true altruism of the idea, pointing out that he and his partners will derive great current and future monetary benefit from such a single-minded solution. But so what, I'd argue -- if they save the world, that's a small price... no?
And remember, the entire driving force behind the WWW was not to give the world an unlimited forum for posting goofy pictures, mindless rants, terrorist how-to's: the digital equivalent of your grandparents' boring travel slideshows, or to create new concepts in shopping...
The idea was to link research scientists and their data in ways that were never before possible, to drive collaboration and, ultimately, success in solving disease and other world problems... and we have Amazon and Facebook... hmm.
But here's the thing - Bill Gates does not agree with Zuckerberg and his friends... not at all. In an interview hot off the Financial Times Press -- Gates says, "I certainly love the IT thing. But when we want to improve lives, you've got to deal with more basic things like child survival, child nutrition."
Addressing Internet.Org directly, the FT reports as follows:
Asked whether giving the planet an internet connection is more important than finding a vaccination for malaria, the co-founder of Microsoft and world's second-richest man does not hide his irritation: "As a priority? It's a joke."
Read the article -- it's worth the time and it will get you thinking.
Bottom line: Gates is not deriding technology -- to the contrary, technology obviously plays a part in all of his activities -- he just doesn't see that having a Facebook-enabled handset in the palm of every human is the only answer... the Holy Grail for mankind.
As I read his interview and began to ponder my own view of it -- I remembered a quote attributed to Albert Einstein, on the very same subject, that I share with you and hope that it inspires your own thinking and approach as it did mine... listen:
"If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution." Albert Einstein
And there you have it.
My view, Bill Gates is spending his time defining the problem.....
What do you think?