His Highness the Aga Khan: “….technologies alone will not save us – the critical variable will….always lie in the disposition of human hearts and minds”

“From the development of written language to the invention of printing, to the development of electronic and digital media – quantitative advances in communication technology have not necessarily produced qualitative progress in mutual understanding.

To be sure, each improvement in communications technology has triggered new waves of political optimism. But sadly, if information can be shared more easily as technology advances, so can misinformation and disinformation. If truth can spread more quickly and more widely, then so can error and falsehood.

Throughout history, the same tools – the printing press, the telegraph, the microphone, the television camera, the cell phone, the internet – that promised to bring us together, have also been used to drive us apart.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
at the International New York Times Athens Democracy Forum
September 15, 2015
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN

“We have more communication, but we also have more confrontation. Even as we exclaim about growing connectivity we seem to experience greater disconnection….technological advance does not necessarily mean human progress. Sometimes it can mean the reverse.
His Highness the Aga Khan
Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture at Harvard University
November 12, 2015
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN

“In the final analysis, the key to human cooperation and concord has not depended on advances in the technologies of communication, but rather on how human beings go about using – or abusing – their technological tools.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
at the 88th Stephen Ogden Lecture, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
March 10, 2014
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN

“It is ironic that a sense of intensified conflict comes at a time of unprecedented breakthroughs in communication technology. At the very time that we talk more and more about global convergence, we also seem to experience more and more social divergence.  The lesson it seems to me is that technologies alone will not save us– the critical variable will always be and will always lie in the disposition of human hearts and minds.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
North-South Prize Ceremony, Senate Hall, Parliament, Lisbon, Portugal
June 12, 2014
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN

“Technologies, after all, are merely instruments – they can be used for good or ill. How we use them will depend – in every age and in every culture – not on what sits on our desktops, but on what is in our heads – and in our hearts.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
The LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture, Toronto, Canada
October 15, 2010
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN

“Among other things, new technologies can help us address growing environmental urgencies. I think, for example, of the pressing need for energy and water conservation, and of the risks associated with climate change, weather extremes and geological instability. Used alertly and intelligently, new technologies can help us cope with bewildering environmental challenges.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2010 Award Presentation Ceremony,Doha, Qatar
November 24, 2010
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN