In Argentina, cheap government-issued netbooks sparked a musical Renaissance
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You can't expect to miraculously boost a kid's education by giving them a computer when they don't have internet connectivity at home, and missed a whole year of school due to covid. Many families can't afford to pay a monthly fee to an ISP.
I still believe that this will be beneficial for many, nowadays having a computer opens up a lot of opportunities, but it can't replace a quality education, and magically fix a flawed education system.
Blaming poor internet availability is just an excuse for failing to look at what's out there and adapt.
Without home internet no distractions, no dopamine hijacks, no content control issues, most importantly no imperative for parents to gain technological familiarity if they want to protect their kids. Kids could simply use school internet for research, download the relevant content, do the deep dive at home like they would do with any book from a library.
Yes, the Amish have managed in the USA so far, but I think that even those days are numbered. Just as many Amish already own mobile phones, though they limit their use and keep them stashed away most of the time, they will be forced to do online things, too.
And by old I mean > 55-60.
I'm ashamed to admit I didn't think of this earlier recently when I needed some printing/scanning done. I went and bought a cheap hp cloud printing (they don't even come with cables anymore) abomination. After trying to get that to work, screwing around with HP accounts, configuring a cloud printer from a linux desktop, installing an app on my phone, etc I ended up going to the local library and got it all done in 30 minutes It was cheaper, easier and better option for something I need to do a few times a year.
This is smart though, since it costs very little to give someone a smartphone with internet these days (ALDI talk in Germany is 8€ a month with a bit of data, a cheap smartphone maybe 100€).
Trying to keep up a service that <0.1% of the population uses costs a lot more.
The Internet isn't what gives meaning to life.
At this point I'm not at all sure what people do or make there except they eat a lot of beef.
This could have been implemented in a better way. That's all I'm saying. It's still good that there students are getting access to computers at home. Even if 25% of them can take advantage of this, that's still a huge number of people.
as usual, its the hard work to set up the infrastructure, courses, support etc for the students and teachers that is needed and almost never gets done
as they say, the music isnt in the piano, same with computers
It was for many of us, at least in some ways. In the 80's when we got an Amiga 500 our parents had no idea what to do with it, it was up to us to learn and read the books it came with. That meant a lot of games but it also came with plenty of creativity software from music programs to basic. The same was true with music, we had a keyboard in the house and some kid friendly music sheets so I was playing regularly from about the time I could reach the keys. I can only imagine how much joy I would have had from a rasberry pi beginner kit.
You can't dump computers/instruments on kids and expect a full general education, but you can expect the curious ones to pick things up and learn if they have access.
The piano I started off with by trying to play along to TV theme tunes and songs i heard on the radio, then I started making my own music up. That was 40 years ago and I still make music just about every week if not everyday.
Probably impractical, India 4G connections seem to have been very succeful.
Been spitballing the same concepts but with mobile phones (on a person or stashed on aircraft doing their weekly freight/mail run) where unused space is the bandwidth. Can move hundreds of gbs at zero cost but meh latency, as you’re imagining.
- used "FTP via email"
- connected via a national call ($$) to a shell account
- used pine to copy+paste email text into local files and vice-versa
- assembled segmented files by hand, then decoded and decompressed
- all on a Mac Portable
He started his career as a coaler on a steamship, probably one of the worst jobs at the time. Correspondence courses were a way up for people who could not afford attending college.
Did correspondence courses come with the same sort of negative stigma in their time?
In reference to COVID... nobody was prepared for distance learning because why would they?
Well, giving a computer to someone doesn't turn them into a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs just because they own it. Depends on the attitude of whom receive it.
You could say that most of the people will use it for fun and you entertainment.
On the other side there are people who will use to uplift themselves and that's something that has to be appreciated.
The truth is that these young man, without a computer wouldn't be in this situation today. So even if is an exception is still good to see that.
At my age when I was in school the whole class had a computer (like 25 of us). Today of that class only 3 work using computer everyday.
The second part of my comment explain that if you've the right attitude and interest then a computer can help you, if you don't is just another tool like your fridge
I read this comment, I read the article and can't stop thinking what if Zuck were among these kids them maybe we could admire him as a musical talent like L-GANTE (link from the article) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SacHyFb_j1o
The point isn't to make every one of these kids a Bill Gates, it's to prevent the Bill Gates among them from living a life of poverty because they couldn't get a computer early enough.
And I guess the government didn't give the PC to everyone because "oh we need to stop our Bill Gates to run out of the country". But rather, their interest was to give equal opportunity to those in need.
Poor people can't think in long terms as they're struggling with their daily needs thus it makes sense for them to solve these rather than think what if my kid would turn into a rich man thanks to it.
Good thing we have people like you that understand poor people and can make decisions in their name and all. Where would they be without you.
Yes, we _know_ it's not going to fix a flawed education system. There's not a person in this entire country who has ever believed otherwise, and using it as a critique of the program has been nothing but a strawman.
We live a in a world where everything is done online. If the only objective this achieved is that kids are now familiar with a computer without having learned anything else, it's still fantastically successful. They know how to load a spreadsheet. They know basic UI paradigms that allow them to navigate crappy government or banking web pages. They come of age using social networks that they will be able to leverage for work and productive connections in the future.
The issue of connectivity is related but ultimately a distraction too, as a single poor wi-fi or 3G connection is still good for watching low-quality Youtube videos or reading tutorials.
It's a middle-of-the-road country with inadequate distribution of services. The resources devoted to this program can't be put to infrastructure. And imperfectly devised program where teachers can't use computers doesn't change the fact that computers are so damn useful that you don't depend on a teacher to learn how to use it, especially with naturally resourceful children.
I think giving computers to children is good only if the quality of education they receive is good. I saw many children using their government-given computers to play GTA san andreas and Counter Strike while they were in the middle of a class, and the teachers didn't do anything about it because the government forbids them to take reasonable disciplinary measures (A teacher wants a child to pay attention during a class? Good luck, there's not much he/she can do) and also the goverments forces the teachers to make everyone pass every exam because "it is stigmatizing" for the children to get a bad mark on a test.
What I comment sounds absurd, but I have no reason to lie about it.
So, even if I consider it can be benefical to give computers to students in some conditions, in Argentina it's not well implemented.
This is 100% false.
A computer allows them to watch YouTube and see tutorials on everything they may want to learn. It _forces_ them to learn to how read and read quickly to digest all the information they get on social networks. It allows them to know that there are such things as spreadsheets and document editors.
This is so much more important than many classes that it can't be understated how critical this is. If these children instead had to go to private computer literacy classes when they turn 21 because they need to write a CV or access a government website, they will have wasted away a ton of potential.
All the children mentioned in the article did not have a good education, but they had a tool that enabled them to make do without it.
I mean, autonomous children, and children with certain interests can learn a lot just by having a computers, while others won't learn much. But still, the exposure to a computer is helfpul for all of them.
I was too extreme in what I expressed. Both having computers and good education are positives.
Sadly, the price/performance wasn't quite there in the mid-2000s, but it seemed like they had some good ideas:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17233946/olpcs-100-laptop...
Maybe the mesh networking could have worked better if it were used exclusively for distributing small files, like a P2P Whispernet.
I know this wouldn't be a "laptop", but with a cheap-ish monitor, keyboard and mouse... it's a small PC. Perhaps with a slightly older CPU which doesn't need super fast RAM, there could be... 2Gb of RAM or more?
Of course the newer RaspberryPi boards are pretty close (and in terms of RAM, even better) to this....
OLPC was also ruggedised, had replaceable parts and had things like crank charging for areas with no/little power, it was a well thought out machine all around. Even in developed countries there are many that can't afford the internet, electricity and repairs required so it's a shame to see schools go with regular lapotops or even worse, premium tablets. One of my nephews had an optional programming class that required an Ipad, it's the worst option in just about every way.
No, it did not. The crank charger was never supplied commercially, it was purely a marketing tactic. Same as the Potenco Pull-cord generator http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Peripherals/Hand_Crank , http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Peripherals/YoYo
Both were ideas which even basic calculations tell you aren't viable.
In addition, your other claims like "ruggedised", "replaceable parts" contradict what I saw with OLPC XO. I would say the product was a one-off that had almost no consideration for long term reuse. Things like the wifi bunny ears prove that the product was driven more by marketing tacticians rather than reality and cost. Honestly, my opinion is that OLPC was a huge scam to take money from unwitting unsophisticated developing country funders who didn't know any better and waste it in swanky offices in One Cambridge. It was one of the worst options about how to expend public funds.
Training humans is hard, that always is the hard part.
The truth is that most of the average or privileged people in the developed and developing world won't do anything extraordinary with their computers either.
If giving at least one tool to the disadvantaged, that others can pretty much take for granted, allows the few among them that would pursue their talents with it is already a step up from the status quo.
The government announced that they will be reopening this program and begin distributing computers again. I really wish them the best of luck even with a global semiconductor shortage because, especially nowadays, those that don't have access to a computer get severely limited in their possibilities. I was only ranting about how this program could have been better implemented at the schools.
I’m from Argentina and saw kids using their computers while sitting in front of a house, hanging (like kids do) and thought that was beautiful. Also saw a girl using hers in the park while her father pushed her little sister in the swing. Those kind of images are inspiring and it’s a shame the program was cut.
> Conectar Igualdad was supposed to end definitively in 2018, but the next year saw a new government come to power. The netbook program has since experienced a rebirth as a part of a bigger project. “Last year, we released the Juana Manso Federal Plan,” said Marés Serra, the general manager at Educ.ar. “And even though we do not have enough funds to cover every grade for now, we have returned to the model where the student owns the computer.”
The lack of internet is a huge problem still, especially considering they call them netbook.
I suspect most students who learned remotely got a lot less out of it. It'll be interesting to see what standardized tests show.
It is one of my favorite magazines now for sharing a perspective on some countries I don't often think about and some that I do (RoK) but don't often get to hear about from typical western news.
Here's one of my favorite pieces recently: what the home office and pandemic work-life looks like for folks in Tehran, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Philippines, Bangkok, Dhaka, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Seoul.
https://restofworld.org/2021/heres-what-working-from-home-lo...
Good to know, but I think it's taking it too far to say that Sophie couldn't be unbiased. Are children so bound to their parents? Are you so bound to think like yours? To support your parents' endeavors? Some do, but many don't.
But well, yeah, her CV and places she's worked (and got salaries from) at is impressive, some of that surely is helped (whether she wants it or not, it's how others are influenced) by the fact who her father is.
* Khea / Duki / Cazzu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ0D_QD_DhM
* Paulo Londra (PG lyrics): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpELzyP4rw&ab
I live in Colombia and am working to get more Latinos / Latinas in tech. I've started giving Macbooks to students and it's helped a lot. Lots of students don't have good development workstations. Macs are incredibly expensive here because of import taxes.
If you have an old Macbook that's in good working condition and would like to donate it, let me know and I'll make sure to get it in the hands of a Colombian student that's working hard to learn programming.
A career in tech can be a transformative life event for a Colombian (and their extended family).
This sound like a great opportunity for the government to do some good.
> This sound like a great opportunity for the government to do some good.
Cut the taxes that fund the services poor people depend on, such as education, health care, transportation, etc., so that they can have cheaper computers and Apple can net more profit?
If it's a VAT it may be funding something, but VATs are not theoretically sound and do make a lot of things expensive, like computers, that you'd actually want to be cheap. (The reason they're used is that they're very effective because it's hard to dodge them.)
There is a lot of additional support I provide that's a lot more important than the computer type.
Out of all that came Motown, a strong rock scene (Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent and more) and the birth of electronic music. Not to mention scores of excellent session musicians as well as a vibrant club scene.
By the seventies the music program was cut due to budget concerns and that downtown music store went out of business.
Could it happens again? Detroit just announced a program to give every teenager a remanufactured laptop and subsidized Internet. There would be more if the schools restarted music instruction but poor kids can be pretty resourceful;<).
https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2020/04/23/detroi...
> poor kids can be pretty resourceful
They are, in fact, like every other kid!
> Out of all that came Motown, a strong rock scene (Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent and more) and the birth of electronic music.
And punk (MC5, Iggy Pop & the Stooges) and funkadelic (George Clinton, etc.). Also, to nitpick, it was the birth of techno, not electronic music.
PS. Saying this as an European, into electronic music of all genres since 20 years.
I'm sure the musical education was a big factor, but I wanted to point out this other part of the story - it relates well to TFA. Most of us in the first world would scoff at using a 10" netbook with 1 GB of RAM, even if it were free. Similarly many musicians scoffed at using drum machine, even if were free compared to a costly studio drummer.
Which also had quality music instruction at all levels of education, at least through the 90s, and had Detroit just down I-94 for somewhere to go and become a pro at it.
The Grande like many Detroit buildings is an absolute wreck. Any other city would have led restoration efforts of this famous Rock temple before now but the city lacks funds and it's in the worst area of the city.
The Ilitch family restored the Fox Theatre in the 80s, so it's not impossible to imagine the right philanthropist doing the same for the Grande Ballroom. Fox is right downtown, however, and as you indicated, Grande Ballroom is... not.
even with the amended version (s/electronic/techno/), this still needs attention ... subthread here, from about a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27093490
1) Just please don't call any random working class neighborhood a slum? That's not very helpful.
2) Given the poverty is a central theme on the article, it could have been good to at least in passing involve the Popular Orchestras program that does specifically target low income townships and neighborhoods all over the country trying to involve them in the classical music world and providing them with tools to better cope with their reality through music.
I grew up in there and up to a couple years ago when I emigrated I visited regularly. Yes, it is a dock workers neighborhood packed with immigrants, not a cool location with 5 usd empanada-in-a-jar type restaurants but it's not a slum unless everything is.
Boca is also where Gastón Aguirre lived (and maybe lives), the guy who went on national TV to criticize the Canadian tourist who made him world famous for filming his attempted armed robbery, defending it as "thinking of getting money for my son": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EIkCTkcrDA
When I moved to a sixth-floor walkup in Boca I discovered mushrooms growing from the ceiling where a hole was blown open in the roof. Later I learned that our downstairs neighbors were cocaine dealers, and their customers had robbed one of my roommates in the stairwell. I moved out not long after.
I agree that there's a significant difference between Boca, which was historically a slum but is now just a dangerous, poor neighborhood, and Villa 31 or Isla Maciel. But Boca, with its unbelievable levels of police corruption, its place of honor on lists of the most polluted places in the world, and its ongoing violent crime problem, is very different from Retiro, Flores, and Colegiales.
Also, it's mold. If you literally had mushrooms that's like an entirely different, more premium, experience.
There are worse places, of course. And people get robbed in San Telmo in broad daylight as well.
Slums, villas, favelas, end up being treated differently and things that would be unacceptable anywhere else (such as police entering your house without a warrant) become perfectly normal.
So that didn't happen. And more recently, maybe if VR/AR had taken off more sharply, there might have been a similar effect. But no.
So here in the future... I don't know how to quickly convey just what wretched dreck, err, how wonderfully better content could be. How about this: Kindergarten through undergrad, students are told the Sun is yellow, in textbooks and outreach. Then an infinitesimal few finally get an "oops, sorry, nope, our bad" from a graduate class on common misconceptions in astronomy education. Incoherent dreck, err, opportunity for wonderful improvement, doesn't begin to describe current content.
So my question is, does anyone know of vaguely similar potential for disruptive improvement in the quality of science education content?
Instructor performance art focuses on specific students, and limited outcome goals, under severe resource constraints. Science education research focuses on isolated deployable improvements. But "big interdisciplinary creative mashup of improvements, catalyzed by massive collaboration of research expertise"... isn't a thing, isn't something we're set up for, or incentivized to do.
But it's what I'm interested in. So, any thoughts?
So what might better look like? Phones/tablets are used preK on. Phones with multiple front cameras could permit a clip-on spectrometer to provide a simultaneous normal view for orientation, making it more accessible. UV and thermal IR cameras are increasingly inexpensive. Light engines for spectra synthesis regrettably seem less readily available? So what might a Kish-accessible spectrometer app look like? What might a spectra-centered preK-2 learning progression for color look like?
It seems at least vaguely plausible that color might thus be taught successfully. Imagine that were true, and gave you early-primary students with a firm grasp of color. How might that then be used, to teach other topics better? UV protection; warm clothes and insulation; Earth's thermal-management BBQ roll, cold clear nights and mountains and deserts, greenhouse gasses; ... ?
> refuse to believe something that explains a bunch of everyday phenomena
Integrated explanation of everyday phenomena does not seem a focus of current education. So perhaps refusal might reflect a lack of familiarity and comfort with such reasoning?
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=what+color+is+water [2] http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/why-is-the-ocean-different-co...
Looking for misconceptions is a great strategy, thanks!
https://wvbirder.wordpress.com/2016/05/22/bluebirds-and-blue...
(They are blue. Looking blue in white light is the same thing as being blue.)
If one thinks an object is the color it reflects, then add confusion about refraction, and one might easily get to "it looks blue but really isn't".
Science education echos stories, and sometimes those are less than wonderful. Like tabloid journalism narratives, missing the point and leaving readers confused and misled. As with "color from refraction, constructive and destructive interference". IIUC, that interference is mere description of wavelength-dependent differential bending - you still need to absorb the colors you don't wish emerging. But emphasizing "it's not pigment color, it's structural color!", rather than their similarity, can parse as reflection/absorption vs refraction, and conceptually interbreed with real vs apparent object color.
Stories like [1]. The "constructive interference" is "cancelling out" wavelengths, which "is why your eyes perceive" blue. Rather than say, here's one of several mechanisms for pigments to color objects.
- Many early UK grime beats (by folks like Benga, Dizzee Rascal, So Solid Crew, Ruff Sqwad) were produced on a Playstation (software: MTV Music Generator or Music 2000)
- (originally pirated copies of) FL Studio running on student or family computers are more or less directly responsible for developments in mainstream US rap in the past ~15 years
- the ultimate one of these is the idea that looting of music stores in the 1977 blackouts led directly to the birth of hip hop in NYC - but this is probably apocryphal and most of those early DJs were just "misusing" their parents' stereo equipment
Would love to hear some more examples!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huayra_GNU%2FLinux?wprov=sfla1
After one year, 60%+ of the computers were never turned on again.
They sucked, it was a rip-off.
Bonus: 60% of children fall below the poverty line in argentina. A great number of these do not have 2 meals a day.
Most reggaeton lyrics follow this structure:
1) I saw a female
2) I am aroused
3) Sexual innuendos
There is almost no difference between the mechanics of "perreo" (from Spanish "perro", dog, meaning "dogging") and rubbing yourself against another person in a sexual manner.
Now, in a more constructive tone... people creating music is a good thing. I hope that these artists persevere, and eventually find ways to create music about themes that elevate the human experience beyond the pursue of the sexual act.
I find it interesting that you dismissed sex/reproduction as not being part of the human experience. I can think of no other act more fundamental to the human experience, save breathing and eating.
The genre seems very focused on those 2 things only, leaving out many other aspects of relationship building. It's as deep as Pikotaro's song "Pen Pineapple Apple Pen".
I thought it was awesome what these Argentinians were doing when I moan about the processing power of my oldish MacBook Pro. And I was impressed with the phrasing of the raps.
But of the two examples I clicked through, one focused on violence and the other objectified women. But the sample size of people they profiled was tiny. Maybe if they sought out a female music producer they'd find the Argentinian Grimes?
I'm not sure what to recommend out of the current generation—it's too new for the gold dust to have settled out from the panning, and I have a hard time enjoying trap, reggaeton, and cumbia villera, even if it's Las Culisueltas—but I can strongly recommend Charly García, Fabiana Cantilo, Bersuit Vergarabat, Vanesa Butera, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Maria Elena Walsh, Patricio Rey y los Redonditos de Ricota, Mercedes Sosa, Sumo, Pappo, Las Pelotas, Divididos, Damas Gratis, La Renga, and Soda Stereo (and anything else by Cerati). If you're more looking for the idiot/asshole type, you might enjoy Fito Paez or Andrés Calamaro (whose La Parte de Adelante really beats the entire trap/rap genre when it comes to demeaning women, on par with the Stones' Under my Thumb or Brown Sugar, but is an earworm in a way nothing from the Stones ever managed to be).
Going back further, of course Argentina is famous for tango music from the 01930s, which retains a small following and had a Tango Nuevo revival in the early 02000s with bands like Gotan Project, Supervielle, and Bajofondo; and Argentine folk music with its chacareras, chamamés, and candombe is an inexpressibly rich tradition that sounds like nothing else, today represented by musicians like el Chaqueño Palavecino and previously by Atahualpa Yupanqui.
(Looking at these lists there's a glaring gender imbalance; I think this is a result of machismo in Argentine culture denying opportunities to talented women rather than biases of my own.)
So if the new generation of trap musicians achieve great things, I'd look for the causes more in the century of musical excellence that preceded them rather than in the excellent Huayra GNU/Linux or the rest of Conectar Igualdad.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that felt humbled by that very same thing! I frequently find myself focused on why my machine can't run the latest-and-greatest piece of music software, when I really should be focusing on making music with the tools I have available.
>2) I am aroused
>3) Sexual innuendo
Ah, yes, that never happened, ever. Unlike:
- Jazz. Do you really want to know what Betty Boop was actually about?
- Rock and roll
- Hard rock
- Pop
- Disco
- Tangos
- Any Latin dancing music.
- Any Latin-American ballad/copla since 1930.
- Dirty Medieval limericks from Europe.
Some one from Spain (Castille) earlier than the US itself:
Todas las mujeres
tienen en el obligo una rosa
y un poquito mas abajo
la cueva de la raposa.
All women have
in the belly button, a rose.
And a little further down
the fox' hole.Same with many of the other genres you mentioned.
Then, the way you dance to those genres doesn't consist solely of dry humping your dance partner.
There was a lot of sexual innuendo back in the day where obviously, today is not as scandalous. But back then, it was.
Tutti Frutti was about either anal sex, or vaginal sex from behind:
Since 2013, Venezuela entered into a huge economical crysis. Resulting in people not being able to afford to buy a pc or laptop so the "Canaima" / "Canaimita" laptops where their only alternative to own a computer.
Nowdays, all those kids (now grown) are still using their laptops, most of them already at University level, Imagine people at universities using 2012 notebooks with 10inches screens. They are perfectly working and you can easily fix them as there is so many parts on mercadolibre [2]
As a side note, all the laptops were given away with a linux version mantained by the govt [3] so kids were somehow forced to learn basic linux, wich is kinda cool, eventually most got to install windows on the laptops by themselves, take note that it was of course pirated windows/office, so the kids at least learnt how to properly set up their laptops.
The laptops pretty much became part of venezuelan young generation culture, getting to a point that facebook groups started appearing of people sharing games supported by the laptop [4] some other groups of people modding the laptops and so on.
In fact, one of the biggest youtubers (LowSpecGamer) [5] started his crusade of -low specs gaming- using one of these laptops.
If you wanna take a look of what the "canaimita" market right now is, take a look at youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=canaimita you can also sorty by new to see kids reparing the laptops or doing memes with them https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=canaimita&sp=CA...
[1] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaima_Educativo
[2] https://listado.mercadolibre.com.ve/canaima#D[A:canaima]
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaima_(operating_system)
[4] https://www.facebook.com/Juegos-para-canaima-y-pc-de-bajos-r...
[5] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQkd05iAYed2-LOmhjzDG6g
The fact that many potential great artists, scientists, developers, musicians are lost to poverty, and for not having access to tools is mind-numbing.
And while I am unaware of the music scene of YT, you can get access to world-class tutorials in CS topics- from MIT, Stanford, etc. They are as good as any.
And, yes, critical feedback is very important, but while you cannot properly substitute the feedback you get at unis, you can learn to live with and benefit from internet forums, groups, subreddits, etc.
In fact I'll go as far as to say a requirement for masters to teach students is an inhibitor to widespread learning and the invention of the printing press is what allowed us to avoid this. Similar to the revolution that the internet is creating.
Nothing from what I learned in Uni prepared me to actually be a software engineer, yet here I am (as well as most of us who are reading this, I assume).
The world's progress doesn't depend on a few exceptional people, but it does require a competent majority.
When I think of an artistic renaissance (lower-case), I think of emerging from a fallow period into a new, productive, innovative period. The article makes the case that this is what happened in Argentina as a result of these netbooks. I can't say if that's true or not, but the word choice is reasonable to me.
Autocorrect.
I agree with the latter point but not the former. Many, many YouTube videos on many, many subjects are sufficiently in-depth. I remodeled my garage and built my home office in it largely with knowledge I learned from builders and tradesmen on YouTube. Practices like drywalling, installing and leveling doors, sealing concrete, changing light switches and receptacles, and doing trimwork are some of the things that I knew nothing about and then learned how to do well enough for me to WFH at the start of the pandemic.
In the world of music, and especially hip hop, production and mastering YouTube is perhaps the best school on the planet. The amount of knowledge being uploaded and viewed daily is absolutely a world wonder.
And while YouTube authors and creators aren't able to give critical feedback directly from their channels, usually, some do[1][2][3]... and even if they didn't, it's not like there is a shortage of places on the internet to get critique on your art.
___
1. Deadmau5 reviewing a track submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY76tO4qe8Q
2. Well-known hip hop producer Kenny Beats holds beat battles on his Twitch, this video is from a contestant who regularly enters the contests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djLT5OQbHpw
3. Music reviewer Anthony Fantano routinely does amateur track reviews with his fans and followers on Twitch, live: https://twitter.com/theneedledrop/status/1405171034538582017 (Sorry, no VODs on his Twitch that I can see... which is common for music-centric channels unfortunately)