Page:Code Swaraj - Carl Malamud - Sam Pitroda.djvu/90

Code Swaraj We just assumed nobody was home. We assumed nobody was there. I would have loved to talk to somebody, but nobody would talk, and that’s why I just went ahead and grabbed it.”

Not only that, these are books. Once it’s on the Internet, I can’t hack your server, but if it’s public data—and public data is something run by the government—then I have a right to take it, and look at it. Now, I obviously bear responsibility, if there are subsequent copyright issues. But we’re ready to deal with those. So that library is online.

Now, you may ask, “Why does this stuff matter? Why do you need public printing?” Well, the world right now is in disarray. I don’t know what your feelings are about the world now, but inequality of income has been growing, poverty, disease, hunger. India has a surplus of food, 200 million people don’t eat.

We can solve those problems. Climate change, these crimes against our planet. As you can see from global warming, this is not some far-fetched idea, this is real. This is science.

Intolerance. Violence against people of other religions. Violence against people of other ethnicities. Violence against women and children. Intolerance. Intolerance against ideas. The horrific shooting of Guari Lankesh, in Bangalore.

Fake news? Nazis, getting on Facebook? Coming up with fake stories, helping elect our President, in the United States? And the question is, what can you do about something like this?

I believe that every generation, every point in time, has an opportunity. If you’re technical, and it was the early 1960s, you’d be like Sam. You’d help invent the digital phone switch, or invent computers. If you were in the 1950s, you might have been working in aerospace. Same goes with social issues. There are things we can do. If you were living in the 1880s, you would be battling against involuntary servitude. You would be following Gandhi.

I believe that our opportunity, the unmet promise, is universal access to knowledge. It’s something we can do. We can make it happen, and the reason that matters, is because a democracy is owned by the people.

The key to democracy is informed citizens, and so, I believe the key to change—you can’t solve global warming today, but if we all understand what’s