It is a moving and compelling testament to how much technologies of connectivity and communication have changed the world and how much is made possible. The film starts out with Gandhi (actual historical clip) walking into his hut in Sabarmati. It then, cuts over to his face talking to people about one world, uplift for all. We see soldiers in WW2 looking at his talk on television, a couple in Italy sitting on a park bench and viewing it on their cellphone, people gathered in Moscow looking at it in big screen, executives looking at it on their desktops in London and in New York, trains screaming through wilderness of Canada and native Indians viewing his talk on a laptop. It paints a compelling and redeeming vision of what is possible with technology when it is applied to peaceful purposes. The tag line is Imagine the world today if he could have communicated like this."
After a brief visit to Bodh Gaya, visiting the Mahabodhi Shrine, meditating at the lotus pond and under the Bodhi Tree, I remember sitting down at my laptop back at the hotel and penning a journal entry: What would Buddha have done if he was born in the 21st Century? I felt he would have embraced technologies of communication, neurobiology, genetics and transportation and would have created something other than monasteries and Bhikkus with shaven heads walking with begging bowls to develop humility and compassion. What is that other vision? What would Buddha do?
In the last 70 years or 100 years, there has been a lot of advancement in the areas of technology (communication, computation, transportation, medicine, ecology) During that time the war machine has enslaved much of the technology - resulting in nuclear missiles, precision guided bombs, faster than sound planes, night vision, geographical positioning systems, satellite based communication and CBCW and WMD). The list is endless.
The peace movement can bring itself up to date and begin to embrace these advanced technologies. That would be not enough. We need to channel innovation and entrepreneurship, and breakthrough technologies to the cause of peace and sustainable development. There are numerous examples of the peace movement and nonviolent action utilizing technologies (fax machines in the 80s, Internet and email in the nineties) - but most are serendipitous.
Time has come to DRIVE new technologies..