Educational Media Reviews Online

This audio CD contains a 1-hour lecture given by Dr. Lightman at the University of Toronto’s Second Annual Hart House Lecture and broadcast as segment of the CBC IDEAS radio program. Dr Lightman reflects on the personal costs of living in a constantly connected world of instant communication and information overload. In a recent epiphany, he realized that he no longer “wastes any time”. A discussion of modern society’s obsession with speed and consumption, the confusion of information with knowledge, and the loss of silence and privacy follow. “Faster” and “More” has invariably been linked to “Better”. Technology is always Progress. This leads to a broad discussion of how progress, technology, and capitalism have become irrevocably joined together.

As a research physicist, poet, novelist, and professor of astrophysics and humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Lightman provides an interesting perspective on the role of technology in society and the critical need to create private space in our lives. The lecturer clearly sees this as a matter of individual responsibility, which gives us freedom to act rather than being a burden. He ends the lecture with this statement, “Only individuals can measure their own values and needs, their own spirit, and their own quality of life”.

The lecture is deliberate and exceptionally clear. Brief musical interludes are helpful in marking major sections of the talk. Though engaging and easy to follow, this is a formal lecture, obviously read from a written manuscript. This may be a barrier to those with more informal or non-auditory learning styles.

The lecture would be an excellent starting point for a discussion of these broad themes. A number of historical events, examples, and quotes are given in the lecture which would permit discussion and development of a number of subsidiary topics.