When [the next five billion] people come online, how will those all of us in the first two billion be affected?

Schmidt: These are people just like us. They’re trapped in a bad system, but they are human beings. They have the same perfection and brilliance and foibles and intuition and that we do. So the sooner we can get them the tools to get themselves organized, to get the corruption addressed, to get the healthcare better, the better off we’re all going to be. When you sit in one of these villages, and ask, how does your healthcare work, there’s a pause and they say, Well, there really isn’t any. Well then, what happens when you get sick? Sometimes you get better, and sometimes you die. It’s the most bizarre conversation. We take these things for granted, and yet this is their reality.

Cohen: The companies that originally make the tools of connectedness will come from the parts of the world that are already connected to that first 2 billion. But ultimately the best and most interesting and most creative use cases will come from the next 5 billion, because those people do more with less, and necessity drives innovation.

via Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen on What’s Next for the World | Wired Business | Wired.com.