> Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones. But some artisanal mines are run by armed gr

> Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones. But some artisanal mines are run by armed groups involved in massacres of civilians, mass rapes, looting and other crimes, according to U.N. experts and human rights groups. This is part of a much larger problem. The transformation that technology has had on previously pastoral peoples is devastating. It's not just the Congo. Now any place that has any value to the technological system is ripe for exploitation in areas without strong societies and anyone with a gun. It's the reason why everything is so cheap here. Technology made these places worse and we offer an improvement to a small local maximum with trade, whereas they may have been better off without technology altogether. The first-world west is maximally exploitative and maximally destructive.