Newsnight has an interview with Negroponte tonight – you can watch the show via streaming as well.

He unveiled the $100 laptop at the UN ‘World Information Summit’ in Tunis.

I’m fascinated by this idea – I love the vision of deploying these things all over the world. It won’t solve world hunger, and the argument against these techno-fetishistic solutions hold some weight, but ultimately, these are tools that truly have the power to change consciousness…yes, the politics, trade inequalities, debt relief, aids and outright poverty need to be tackled at all levels, but so too does the education, or rather the opportunity for education.

E-books, wikipedia, collaboration, programming, writing, video – all the stuff I take for granted and use everyday. If I stop to think about it for a moment, it’s incredibly powerful – this slab of aluminium.

I guess the $100 laptop rekindles some of the romance and excitement that I felt when I started using the internet for the first time…and stops me taking things for-granted.

Plus, come on, admit it, a windup laptop – how cool is that? It’s ludicrously profound – and why not get that tech in mainstream products? With solar backpacks, windup laptops and cellphones, we could be incredibly autonomous.