This problem seems like it was already solved using satellites.
The only real niche I see for this is during natural disasters, which could get a cell network back online in a limited capacity. But even then, it seems like it would be cheaper to just run some more diesel out to the cell towers’ backup generators.
Who needs food and clean drinking water when you can have Internet.
Democratization of communication resources substantially helps other facets. I hate this sort of knee jerk whataboutism. Aid can and should be multifaceted.
Internet by itself is not democratization of anything anymore. Until a cure is found to centralism, censorship and anything real being hidden by oceans of weaponized information sewage.
I agree, but there is a pretty substantial list of stuff to arrange before internet becomes a thing people need… Granted, internet can help with some of them. But focussing on the primary things to keep people alive and allow them to Prosper seems good form.
“Don’t you people have phones”…
Just an example, but I’ve worked in central Africa and was recently at a very rural hospital where there was no running water and no electricity (other than local solar), and while there they received an airborne blood delivery via drone from a facility about 100 miles and about 4 hour drive time away. This was extremely helpful and managed through Internet communication.
Fair enough
Internet access means access to information on all sorts of things that can improve their day to day lives.
Physical resources are also important, obviously, but the free availability of information resources genuinely is life changing.
They can order both on Amazon duh…
And food, but let’s get Internet first to ask them if they’re hungry.
Many years ago my grandfather was involved in an air force test of aerial defense platforms that used balloons.
The idea was you could station these things all around the country and at the first sign of an attack you could have missiles launched from 10k feet to anywhere from anywhere.
The test encountered two problems that caused them to abandon the idea.
These balloons were incredibly easy to shoot down. Which would, presumably, rain volatile rocket fuel and munitions down on whatever was beneath them.
And if a missile launched, but failed to separate completely from it’s housing, it would carry that balloon on a wild, unpredictable trajectory, until it collided with something or it decided it had reached it’s detonation time.
Ideally internet debates wouldn’t get THAT heated though.
This has been a popsci fantasy for a quarter of a century or more. Google tried it and gave up.
Orrrrrrrr…hear me out…
We ALL just stop. We say no to these overinflated bundle prices, we say no to corporate censorship, we say no to the human trafficing. Elon musk will have paid 43 BILLION dollars for…nothing.
