Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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trillion dollar tamagotchi tutors

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during the 20th century 2 or 3 billion people lived on less than 3$ per d

tamagotchis are electronic creatures that reward diligent care; depending on capability the cheap ones are less than 3$ at ebay; newer social IR versions are near 11

drop tamagotchis from the sky on the developing world; make them fun n varietal like pokemon then have whatever people like them use them; this actually is like a human resources thing where if you are calm n persevering enough to raise a tamagochi you are likely calm n perservering to learn a simple craft

the tamagotchis teach a super simple yet prosocial lucrative ability or craft so that people are able to do things like: purify water with chlorine; basically a few drops of chlorine per gallon purifies water; a person that spends a dollar on bleach can make a years worth of clean water; making clean water is a cheap career that takes a tamagochi a few moments n screens of data to describe; better yet is teaching people to order n use pool chlorine tablets; merely heating water with plastic containers perhaps with a reflector works also

make contraceptives like the possible cervical goop with nicotine fluid

make coagulated grass protein food from grass; this is an actual researchers published product: basically lawn clippings with warm water n perhaps NaOH creates protein curds from grass that would go nonefficiently to animal feed

nernst trench batteries; an economical solar electric source

beekeeping; beekeeping won the top clever NGO career award from a couple places

Doing research I note that the tamagotchi company had my idea at the same time but they have the tamagotchis having the careers rather than the people[link]

now here is where this earns money: more than two billion people have room to use n make a living from these technologies; the tamagotchis prompt the people to spend 3$ per month (between 3 n 7 pt of precareer funds, preferably less than a pt of funds earned from the new craft) on upgrades, different careers, video games (kind of like handyphone premium content) as well as do things like order chlorine pool tablets; this is ethical as they earn much more than they are asked to spend

30 dollars per person per year; a billion people; 30 billion dollars per year; 30 PE ratio is 900 billion dollar share worth; even if you only go with half a billion of the worlds 3 billion eligible people n charge 7$ a month it comes out as a company value near a trillion dollars

all that n people get clean water, food, family planning or at least funner romantic lives, and video games; modern tamogotchis communicate thus to grow n earn n learn the human users would meet up together as well which is a way to promote functional economic n social aspects

perhaps there will be an opportunity to suggest more tamagotchi careers as I think of them

beanangel, Mar 07 2008

tamagotchi http://www.tamagotc.../products/index.php
for the first time ever youll mentor your character through the stages of life ...games...skills...the dream job of your [beanangel, Mar 07 2008]

tamagotchi guide to life http://www.tamagotc...45_instructions.pdf
[beanangel, Mar 07 2008]

tamagotchi high resolution http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q8YNSAKVXmU
[beanangel, Mar 07 2008]

$5 iPod http://www.linuxdev...s/NS6250449424.html
A talking book for education, a la $100 laptop [BunsenHoneydew, Mar 17 2008]

[link]






       You have got to be kidding.
WcW, Mar 07 2008
  

       Just how, using only the medium of the tamagotchi, do you intend on imparting the details of utilising 'nicotine goo' as a contraceptive? or Beekeeping?!   

       These are challenges in the communicative arts if ever I saw them.   

       For example, I'd like to see how might it be possible, using a similarly limited medium (such as, for example, ascii art) to convey to someone the methods of sustainable crop rotation. Any takers?
zen_tom, Mar 07 2008
  

       Are you *completely* insane? Do these people have so few demands on their time just keeping themselves alive that they can waste it playing with electronic toys?

(I'll not even get into the initial premise of people living on $n per day; the valid statistic would be what their labour can buy - which is mainly controlled by local economics and interference from foreign do-gooders - not the USD equivalent.)
angel, Mar 07 2008
  

       [theleopard] I like your attempt, but it's not screaming "this is how to perform crop rotation" at me. It's just not. It looks a bit like a fat man lying down on a spiky bed, next to other spiky beds. And some tiny mice.
zen_tom, Mar 07 2008
  

       But how do I make the cow move from field to field?
theleopard, Mar 07 2008
  

       I suppose you could back it up with some more mice...but where are your legumes? And if they are there, how can I tell them from your fallow(cow) and cereals?   

       And we're already cheating because we both know we're talking about crop rotation.
zen_tom, Mar 07 2008
  

       The legs move, but the cow doesn't! Hold on a sec. I'm going to fill it with bees...   

       .__....... .................. .............
(__)o..... .......... ........ ...........
1..1...... 111111......111111
  

       ................. .__............. ...............
................. (__)o........... ..............
111111...... 1..1......111111
  

       ............ ............ .........__
............ ............ ........(__)o
111111...... 111111......1..1
theleopard, Mar 07 2008
  

       //These are challenges in the communicative arts if ever I saw them.//
Are you referring to the "idea" or the posting itself?
[treon] if you are going to elide "and", please use an apostrophe.
[-]
coprocephalous, Mar 07 2008
  

       friendly [edit]   

       (__)o 1 1......111111......111111   

       __ (__)o 111111......1 1......111111   

       __ (__)o 111111......111111......1 1   

       [vehemently] How do I make the spaces stay there?   

       ---------- ------------------------------ --------------------------- ------------- theleopard, Mar 07 2008
beanangel, Mar 07 2008
  

       nifty art much appreciated; theres a few replies to the graphic aspect:   

       words are possible; theres writing as well as pictures; view the video [link] resolution is way up on the social ones   

       basically its just a pet book that teaches people crafts n arranges craft fairs at a 40th the cost of the OLPC from MIT; OLPC is awesome as well, this is just fast cheap n beneficial   

       the way it is also a patience plus nurturance voluntary amusement item is a human resources screen to find people that will be able to actually practice the crafts as well as visit frequently   

       as a benefit tamagotchis are particularly popular with females; teaching lucrative crafts gives them more options   

       humor value: // Do these people have so few demands on their time just keeping themselves alive that they can waste it playing with electronic toys   

       actually developing world people do a lot of socializing   

       "glorious khazakstan" has full employment but I have heard of different nations
beanangel, Mar 07 2008
  

       I've spent time in "developing" countries and in "development" work. This idea is obscenely bad. Rage prevents me from writing more. [-]
baconbrain, Mar 07 2008
  

       It might be my timid personal social style; I read a thing where nurses visited a developing nation n noticed the people were just drinking a pint of water each d   

       the nurses showed them that using sunlight they could create drinkable water, drink more water, then (I think)have better resistance to diahrrea or tiredness   

       these people, n presumably others at their region could have learned to make useable water from a cheap yet repetitively useful thing like a tamagotchi   

       I like the idea of giving that ability to people so they can have a craft   

       its easy to imagine those volunteer nurses having a value of a person month; a USA person month buys hundreds of tamagotchis that keep on teaching   

       viewing the items at my USA life that could have been tamagotchi taught these items come to mind:   

       check your kids homework; my mom n millions of others neglect this   

       different employers are out there; multiple job offers build prosperity   

       if a member of a family travels they can tell other members about better opportunities   

       if you skip restaurant food for a month you have enough money to do something nifty
beanangel, Mar 07 2008
  

       Just keep up with your homework, k?
WcW, Mar 08 2008
  

       I thought this would involve locking Harvard-level professors into a Tamagochi prison.
Shadow Phoenix, Mar 08 2008
  

       Yeah, people in poor countries are poor and hungry because they have no skills, it has NOTHING to do with those countries being war torn plagued by drought and disease or anything...NAH! That can't be it. If only some benevolent westerner would create a little toy to teach these poor people simple simple skills then they be able to survive!   

       I hope someone air-drops you in to one of these countries for at least few years. My bet would be on the locals surviving and, for all of your amazing "smarts", you'd be dead of dysentery, malaria and or half starved.   

       Have fun with your tamagotchi tutor, you imperialistic moron-- I hope it's programmed with some lessons in not being such an ignorant asshole.   

       You need them.
futurebird, Mar 09 2008
  

       actually among westerners this is a common fantasy sci fi theme: magic book from elsewhere thats actually fun teaches useful ability   

       plus what if I had written: share entertainment: drop tamagotchis on developing world places; when they find a moment they, like westerners, might like the amusement
beanangel, Mar 09 2008
  

       [Treon], you #*$%.   

       //this is a common fantasy sci fi theme// First, I've not seen it, but I haven't been reading much new F&SF except Terry Pratchett. Second, if it is, why are you posting it here as an idea? . . . That's all you do: steal someone else's work, smear it around, and post it here. Stop it!   

       As for this idea: It sucks rancid blasphemies.   

       Its goal reminds me of some Indonesian women I watched cooking a wedding dinner. They set up their tools, designated their workers, and performed multiple-step, multiplex assembly processes that impressed the hell out of this old engineer.   

       They had nothing to learn from you or your damn tamagotchis. They need no condescension from the likes of you.   

       Two things else about those ladies: They chatted happily, working toward a common goal, something a tamagotchi would take away. And, they were working in the middle of a displaced-persons camp--their homes and families had been washed away by a tsunami.   

       You would offer them a damn plastic digital toy? All such a thing could do, maybe, is condition them to perform mindless crap work for a faceless employer. They are not here to tell you where to stick the damn thing, and out of respect for them and their dignity, I'm not going to, either.
baconbrain, Mar 09 2008
  

       I'm with [baconbrain]. I can smell the tasty smoke rising from his brainmeats from here. This is idiotic beyond belief; I despair at ever being able to explain why to someone as moronic as to post it in the first place.   

       Rephrase it as small cheap reprogrammable education aide, and you might get somewhere. As it is it smacks of the very worst kind of flabby thinking about the third world.
BunsenHoneydew, Mar 12 2008
  

       This definitely edges into my top ten of "Most Patronising Ideas Ever", and I work in an advertising agency so you're up against some pretty stiff competition.
neuro, Mar 13 2008
  

       This idea, as it currently stands, rots in its own putrification.
It is the acceptance that at some point in the Homo Sapiens Sapiens history we originated from the same evolutionary point.
It fakes a belief that, for some reason, we are temporally removed from each other. Leaving, by extension, a more advanced sub-culture and a less advanced sub-culture. Our only solution to this problem will be deliverence of the *path* ( by the advanced sub-culture) of clues to civilisation, by means of an advanced concept, to the *under* species.
This highly charged situation masks the author's true intentions; That of the universal dissemination of a global knowledge. It is just sad that he/she presumes an intellectual disparity between people based on their income/geographic location/access to education, and perceives the solution to be so planar.
4whom, Mar 13 2008
  

       It sounds like a good idea. and probably a lot more informative than some teachers I recollect. Yes, having been in a few underdeveloped countries, their problems tend to come from a lack of resources rather than a lack of smarts, but it's still an interesting way to spread best practices.   

       Best of all it allows the recipient countries to fight back with their own tamagotchi's with messages like "keep driving that 6mpg SUV and you're grandkids are gonna be under 150ft of water" or "OK, we'll stop growing poppies/cocao if you stop growing tobacco"   
      
[annotate]
  


 

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