The Homeless Technologist

We are in the midst of D2, The Second Great Depression. For the struggling people who have the means to prepare before they become homeless, here is a battle plan: put aside enough money to have an iPhone, Droid or Blackberry phone with connection fees covered for at least a year.

The Creative/Technological Class, which will own the 21st Century, can be virtual nation inhabiting every monetary strata and racial group on Earth, including being homeless.

The slum (thinking more of the types in India and South America) will be the engine room and R&D department for what works in this century. Large and wealthy institutions will be hampered by hindbound vision or communication rules ( such as polite-speak ) that limit lateral adaptation. The slum resident will be have two pressures that ignite positive change -concentrated population and poverty.

I am not pining that homelessness and poverty are cool, and something to be sought after, I'm saying slums are a place where dynamic forces are at play that push people upward. In the US we often cast being homeless, or living in the poorest neighborhoods with an eternal status -a place of absolute zero, I'm countering that with a sense of optimism and opportunity within the context of dire straits, properly equipped with the right technology and knowledge, there is reasonable hope.

And now for my out-there idea. I know this may never happen, but I think we should have a slum-to-astronaut program. Most or all astronauts must be from slums. This would break the current assumptions of class and access to privileged, hypermodern opportunities.