Submitted by brad on Fri, 2009-06-12 13:49. Our world has not
rid itself of atrocity and genocide. What can modern high-tech
do to help? In Bosnia, we used bombs. In Rwanda, we did next to
nothing. In Darfur, very little. Here’s a proposal that seems
expensive at first, but is in fact vastly cheaper than the
military solutions people have either tried or been afraid to
try. It’s the sunlight principle. First, we would mass-produce a
special video recording “phone” using the standard parts and
tools of the cell phone industry. It would be small, light, and
rechargeable from a car lighter plug, or possibly more slowly
through a small solar cell on the back. It would cost a few
hundred dollars to make, so that relief forces could airdrop
tens or even hundreds of thousands of them over an area where
atrocity is taking place. (If they are $400/pop, even 100,000 of
them is 40 million dollars, a drop in the bucket compared to the
cost of military operations.) They could also be smuggled in by
relief workers on a sma