lecture with a thoughtful critique of the wired world
Something as simple as turning off a cell-phone can lead to a better world, according to last Wednesday’s guest of the Hart House lecture series.
Respected physicist, novelist, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Alan Lightman delivered a lecture entitled “The World is Too Much With Me: Finding Private Space in a Wired World” to several hundred people in The Great Hall at Hart House.
Those who did not reserve tickets in time overflowed into the East Common Room, where they watched the lecture via television. The lecture series, founded and organized by students last spring, aims to raise public debates on issues of personal and collective identity, as well as discuss the responsibilities of active citizenship in society.
“Alan’s topic is a very timely one,” said Lisa Punnett, Hart House’s lecture committee public relations coordinator.
“And we liked the fact that he’s an interdisciplinary academic.”
“Alan Lightman emerged as our choice not only because we are fascinated with the ideas in his fiction and his essays, but also because we are intrigued by him, by the creative tension between the scientific and the artistic which he embodies and by the unique path of his life,” said Warden Margaret Hancock in her opening remarks.
In his lecture, Lightman discussed how the obsession with the speed of technology contributes to the loss of silences and inner reflection, plus the lack of privacy. Lightman emphasized that while technology is beneficial, we need to be able to unplug from it to consider what is really important in life.
“I believe that if we’re not able to spend time in our inner lives,” said Lightman in an interview prior to the lecture, “which is where we think about our morals and our values, then essentially we are amoral.
“On the national level, I think of whole nations like people. If the citizens in the country can’t listen to themselves, then I don’t believe the country as a whole can [listen to themselves]. This also impacts its relations with other countries.”
While there is no solution to the problem of the increased pace of life due to technology, Lightman says a crucial part of tackling the problem is acknowledging that it exists.
“The key, it seems to me,” Lightman told the crowd, “is awareness. We must become aware of the choices.”
These choices involve taking small steps such as not answering the phone during dinner or leaving the cellular phone at home while on vacation.
“I believe that all of these technologies can be used to benefit us, but they can also be abused and we need to be more conscious of the way we’re relating to the world around us,” Lightman said.
Lightman praised U of T for its diversity and the intellectual excitement of its students.
“It is these students,” he concluded, “that give me hope for the future in this troubled world.”
