Is Technology A Saviour?

I'm a big fan of technology and am always amazed at how far we have come as a human race to rely on technology. Sadly that "digital divide" exists as much as the monetary divide in our world today.

Hence I've wanted to know how technology can help those people who need help the most.
Would providing computers such as those $100 laptops be what developing societies need to improve their standard of living?

Having pulled out an old Economist magazine (2005!) and reading one of its Technology Quarterly sections, it pointed out that for some really poor people, computers do not even rate on their radar of things. The sad part is that it is not that they are rejecting technology, it is that they are oblivious to it. They are more concerned with sanitation, land, health, things that matter to their very survival.
Of course, technology does help those who have that basic level of literacy, to assist them with crop prices, exam results (for the school kids) etc. This does mean that it is helping those that are well off become more well off.

It just seems that there is a cut-off from where it cannot directly assist. In those cases, the investments in technology may be better used in health. Other low cost options such as radios may already provide that communication link that many developing communities lack.

It could be in this area of communication that technology may be able to radically assist. Wireless communication could reduce the costs of transactions for all sorts of people. From this question and answer on what factors will affect developing countries using mobile phones as point of sales devices seems to have a bright future.

I am sure that going forward, there will be many more advances in technology to help developing countries, but until we get some of the basics worked out, it won't help those that really need it.

Money In A Brave New (Virtual) World

I admit that I enjoy the odd Guild Wars game once a week. It's a good chance to meet up with some overseas friends, take out some monsters and generally have a good time.

I earn Guild Wars gold from killing monsters and such, and use this gold to buy goodies such as better armour, better weapons, more skills, and other things. For me, though, I don't place any real-world value to this gold, except to get more stuff.

However, it seems that for others, a real world value can be found. Search Ebay for "World of Warcraft Gold", and there's a ton of guides. However, there are sites where you can see that the they list an exchange rate (currently it is $0.50 USD per 100 Gold)

There are now people who classify their "job" as making virtual money. They log in to World of Warcraft, and "earn" virtual money to exchange. Are they, in the words of Peter Drucker, just a new type of information worker? Do they do what we do in the real world ie transform information and add value?

Take a look at Second Life. It is a virtual world, where people can create and charge for their own creations. Last year there was $20m worth of transactions on the game itself, and $3m in currencies. Yes, this is a miniscule amount compared to the trillions that are traded on the normal currency exchange, but the mind boggles!

So what is the difference? Our current monetary system is not backed by gold anymore, so both Linden Labs (who own Second Life) and Zimbabwe can print as much money as they like (often with disastrous consequences). Our currencies are backed by the country's economic growth, inflation and productivity, as well as cross-border trading of actual financial assets. Can these be related to a game such as Second Life?

Will there be a day that people will hedge their currencies against a virtual one? Will traders work the arbitration between the virtual currencies to make a profit?

How regulated will these virtual currencies become? I think that the more people start getting into these until they sort out these other things such as intellectual rights, user rights within the system and ownership, it will continue to be something that is a anomaly, rather than a norm.