Segway creator unveils his next act
Erick Schonfeld at CNN Money - Dean Kamen, the inventor of the IBOT mobility device (too amazing to be called a "wheelchair") and the Segway, has announced that he has the technology working for third-world power generation, using dung as the fuel, and for water purification. Doesn't appear to be commecialized as yet, and isn't mentioned on the DEKA Research web site, but knowing him, he'll get there.
I saw Dean Kamen demonstrate the IBOT back in 2001 in Washington DC. Report here.
Click here for Clairefiles discussion. Click here for Slashdot discussion. [clairefiles]
Quadir is going to try and see if the machines can be produced economically by a factory in Bangladesh. If the numbers work out, not only does he think that distributing them in a decentralized fashion will be good business -- he also thinks it will be good public policy. Instead of putting up a 500-megawatt power plant in a developing country, he argues, it would be much better to place 500,000 one-kilowatt power plants in villages all over the place, because then you would create 500,000 entrepreneurs.
"Isn't that better for democracy?" Quadir asks. "We see a shortage of democracy in the world, and we are surprised. If you strengthen the economic hands of people, you will foster real democracy."
Lights, water, freedom. Now that's entrepreneurial.
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