Module 9 Chps. 13-17

We’re finally done reading the Friedman book!  What a relief, I’m stoked to write about something else, other than “The World Is Flat”.  Not that it wasn’t interesting, but there were some pages that I wasn’t exactly thrilled to read.  But in these last chapters of the book, Friedman makes some good points that made me think about the future of the flat world.

To get started with the questions.  How is a Dell Laptop built?  Well, the supply chain is gigantic, and the process is all articulately organized down to minutes.  It starts with the customer’s order.  Dell receives the order and then sends a message to one of its six factories around the world.  The factory, then sends a message to its suppliers of what they need and how much of it they need.  Those suppliers respond and immediately work to fill the order.  The order is filled and sent to a Dell factory where the parts are put together to meet customer’s needs (software and hardware specifications).  When done, the laptop is shipped to the customer. The customer receives the laptop, signs the papers and the process is repeated again with more customers.  Did I mention, that Dell sells 140,000 to 150,000 a day (Friedman 581)?  Making that many computers in a day is no simple feat.  Those laptops have over 30 key components in them and Dell uses multiple suppliers, just in case one a supplier cannot make the count.  Not to mention that those suppliers aren’t always close to each other geographically. Their supply chain is mind-boggling, but it runs like clockwork.

Next question. Does Al-Qaeda have a supply chain?  Friedman argues that it does. He argues that Al-Qaeda advertises and recruits through the internet.  The internet makes it so that even when terrorists are hiding in caves, they can still make a big impact on people through what they choose to post on the internet.  The internet is where they advertise for donations, or recruitments, or just to send a message of fear to others.  They use the flat world technology to destroy the flat world!  Computers, hardware, software, everything in the flat world is just a tool.  And those tools can be used for anything, including making a bunch of money or wreaking world havoc.  I liked a quote from a chapter that said “Democracy is great, but democracy without responsibility is truly frightening” (Friedman 527).  Computers are like our own personal freedom.  We can upload what we’d like.  We all have the same rights to upload what we want, but when we upload irresponsibly, it’s frightening.  Computers can either be a great tool to build good things, or a tool that acts more like a weapon, destroying what others have built up.

Last question.  What is the curse of oil?  Countries who have lots of oil oftentimes struggle to “develop real institutions, property rights, rule of law, independent courts, modern education, foreign trade, foreign investment, freedom of thought, and scientific inquiry to get the most out of their men and women”(Friedman 626).  This is because oil is a big source of money for the government officials in countries such as Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.  If these countries aren’t taxing the public, they don’t have to tell the public what they are doing with the money.  And the public doesn’t really benefit from the money either.  On the opposite of the spectrum are countries that aren’t oil rich.  These countries need to tax the working men and women for money.  And when they tax the public, the government needs to explain how that money will be used to benefit the people.  Whether it is used towards education, law, etc.  Since the county can’t rely on oil, it needs to be good at producing other things in a competitive way.  There is more motivation to develop the country, because the money doesn’t come out of the ground, it comes through the educated ideas of self-motivated persons.

In summary, the book opened up ideas to me that I had never thought of before relating to technology, especially computers and the internet. I feel both excited and fearful for the future in technology.  It seems to me that technology can be used for good or bad, and since we the users control what we do with it, we should think about what ways we would like to use computers for good.