In this EarthSky Clear Voices for Science interview, Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webby Awards, talks about the film she’s directing, “Connected: A Declaration of Interdependence, ” due for release in early 2011.

Tiffany Shlain: Technology has given our world a central nervous system. When the earthquake happens in Haiti, people can text donations. They can use technology to find out where resources are needed most. That central nervous system is the metaphor that is that something happens in one part of the earth and people on the other side can feel it and respond and act.

Shlain explained that the film explores what it means to be connected in a global community in the twenty-first century with technology. She said that her team studied systems theory to illustrate how we’re all inextricably linked today.

Tiffany Shlain:  All of the major issues of the twenty-first century – whether it’s the environment, whether it’s population, economics, poverty – all of those issues we often talk about them as separate issues, but they’re all interconnected.

Shlain said that we should examine the problems of the twenty-first century as interdependent and interconnected and that solutions to these problems will only come if addressed in the same manner. For example, she said that periods of peak population, such as today, have historically correlated with significant breakthroughs.

Tiffany Shlain: The two major developments in the twenty-first century is that there are more people than ever, but we’re also more connected than ever before.  It’s been proven throughout history that whenever there’s been a dense population of people, it’s been when breakthroughs have happened.  With all these people together, you have a cross-pollination of ideas and people exchanging different perspectives and ideas.