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Is literacy in danger because of technology? Will students stop reading and writing all together because they spend lots of time on the computer?

I have talked to some parents who legitimately worry about their children slipping away from the traditional ways of books, pen and paper. Afraid of change and yearning for a return to the “good old times,” some worry that technology they do not understand or use will destroy the children’s motivations to read and write. Not familiar with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, deviantART, YouTube and other blogs or forums, some parents cannot participate in the activities of their children, adding a fear of being disconnected from their children and leaving them with feelings of inadequacy.

Along the same lines, science fiction shows such as Syfy’s upcoming Caprica, will display a world where technology is run amok, used by a lazier younger generation. Yet it’s doing the exact opposite in our world: it’s sparking a definite, driven creativity that’s enabled by technology, rather than hampered or perverted by it.

         

We left the UN with a sense of wonder at the realization that we had been part of something truly special. We left with the idea that maybe we could do something to start changing the world.

But we also got challenged to enter the Visions for Tomorrow challenge of the NBC Universal Digital Media competition, by making a short video about some issue addressed by the show. During the one month that followed, the students and I worked to construct a movie about the role of women as leaders, inspired by the portrayal of the president of the colonies in Battlestar Galactica, Laura Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell.

         

We, all of us, have the responsibility to buy the extra time, which will maybe ensure our survival as a civilization. And I have been wondering what we can do about it. The human species with its genius and its ability to understand the world and the universe has devised all the technological advances to make our world a better place; we have the knowledge, the science and the resources.

Have we just become too lazy using our gifts and abilities to fight for our humanity? Have we become too selfish and greedy to really care about the world around us?

         

At the World Science Festival in June, Mary McDonnell said, with visible emotion, “I no longer suffer from the illusion that we have a lot of time. On a spiritual and political plane, I’d like to be of better and more efficient service, because it really feels like we’re running out of time.”

We are certainly running out of time.

I have been feeling that way for a while. This feeling, tenuous at first, barely there, has been amplifying steadily over the past few years. It has made its way slowly to a conscious level in my mind. It really started with the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, which killed thousands of people and instilled poison in our souls, eating at our liberties and our humanity through insidious ways. Aren’t the best civilizations tested by fire?

         

I have recently begun working with the good folks at the Sci-Fi channel and last Thursday, the 11th, I had the extraordinary opportunity to live tweet a special event at the Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Topic: the role of television in helping society explore the big issues of the day, as well as the big issues of tomorrow.

One thing that made the event so extraordinary was that it was framed as a panel discussion with stars from the recently concluded Battlestar Galactica (Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell), producers of the show (Ronald D. Moore and David Eick), and two representatives from the United Nations dealing with many of the issues in fact — human rights, torture, justice — that shows like BSG deal with in fiction. But as the UN’s Craig Mokhiber told the audience at the Mann last Thursday, “There’s not much fiction in Battlestar.” (Note: the BSG crew ran a similar panel at the World’s Science Festival at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.)