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Opening
of Queens University, (April, 2006).
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I am honored that you have asked me to speak a few words of introduction at the opening of the IT lab. I am thankful to the Dean Rosa and to Ken Maharaj for setting this up. Today's generation of students swim in a sea of bits and, to them, bits of information are to them as water to fish, i.e. they are inseparable. However I would hope that young minds begin to craft meaning from this sea of bits and make computing purposeful in solving important challenges facing Mankind: The recognition of differences in the pursuit of Unity between cultures; The respect for Nature and to those many cultures for whom Interaction with Nature was an integral part of a culture's mythology, symbolism and ritual; The respect for Woman, i.e. Woman as a symbol of the Creative faculty of Man, as a universal symbol of compassion and as a symbol of Heart based creativity. To illustrate how computing can be purposed towards the creation of meaning, I would like to show you one example from recent work: The Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Exhibition launched in India. This exhibition uses computing creatively to address important issues facing India and the World: The pursuit of Truth, Non violent conflict resolution, integrating the perspectives of Nature based communities and village craftsmen in the design of modern products and computing.
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