This item came in a snippet on my Fear, Fun and Filoz web page:
https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/
I was alerted to this article by an item in Nate Silver's 538 weekday newsletter "Significant Digits". I am still wowed by Time magazine's list of surprising big ideas from 2010
https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2010/04/important-ideas-from-time.html
Back in 2010, Columbia law professor Tim Wu pointed to tv as something that many of the humans of earth had not experienced. When I think of tv, I think of being able to turn on the set at any time and watching what I want. On broadcast tv, I have to select from what is offered at that time. With streaming, I get a much wider selection of interest but I admit that my tv gets hundreds of channels that I have not explored.
That sort of tv requires continuous, reliable electricity but wind or water power can be used to charge batteries as demonstrated by "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind". It also requires a group of broadcasters and technicians to create content. I visited Europe more than 40 years ago and experienced intermittent electricity so I realize that what I am used to might not be what billions of India's citizens experience.
When a foreign team of white water kayakers visited near me, one was asked what he thought of the US. He answered that he had heard of the internet and was eager to experience it.
There are two cellphones in this picture. Imagine what smartphones are doing to our world. The three women pictured are all impressed with the performance and possibilities of communication, enjoyment and entertainment, not to mention the transmission of pictures of their lives and activities to others.
