| > I was about to tear down your critique bit by bit -- you think healthcare is all about delivering pills? -- what do you know about roads in the 3rd world It's good you didn't because the 1st one would be putting words in my mouth, and it's apparent I know a little bit more about roads in the 3rd world than you do. (I've actually traveled and worked in parts of the world where there are no roads whatsoever, no electricity/gas/landlines/mobile whatsoever, locals have to take a boat 2 miles on the river to get their mail, and planes have to land on the beach.) > I think running drone networks to deliver medicine and small good is merely a stopgap measure to building roads. And once roads are built, I feel that real economic growth can finally commence. You should read the Matternet site. That is exactly the idea. It's a good hand-up idea. Once you enable healthcare, government, and economic activity, you enable the local population to build and maintain real infrastructure. Drones are interesting precisely because they are potentially low cost and "better than nothing." > In fact, having this drone delivery network in the 3rd world may retard the development of roads; roads will only be needed to transport big things, and people can get by with continuous delivery of small things via autonomous drones, thus it will take longer for roads to be built because there will be less demand. Unlikely. Drones are simply better than nothing. Once you have more economic activity, then you have the local economic base for real infrastructure, like roads. |