Ending Poverty with Technology

There are growing worries that new technologies may eliminate work, increase inequality, and create a large dependent class subsisting on transfers. But can technology instead be turned against itself and used to end poverty? This class explores the sources of domestic poverty and then examines how new technologies might be developed to eliminate poverty completely. We first survey existing poverty-reducing products and then attempt to imagine new products that might end poverty by equalizing access to information, reducing transaction costs, or equalizing access to training. In a follow-up class in the spring quarter, students who choose to continue will select the most promising ideas, continue to develop them, and begin the design task within Stanford¿s new Poverty and Technology Lab.