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On March 17th, the delegate country names lining the rows of seats in the main “theater” of the United Nations were replaced with the names of the colonies that were home to the crew of Battlestar Galactica. Whoopie Goldberg and the cast and creators of the Sci Fi epic were seated on the dais, facing the audience. Dignitaries attached to the United Nations’ efforts to stop crimes against women and children, seek reconciliation amongst warring peoples, and keep up the struggle for universal human rights were rotated on and off the stage in concert with episodic clips from the show that eerily reflected our similar dramas here on earth at the beginning of the 21st century.

It was surreal. And too real. It is painful to think that civilization on this planet has advanced thousands of years, and we still resort to uncivilized behavior when our turf or status is threatened, when we are under stress, or when we are just plain stupid. Science fiction, at its best, has always shown not only the wonders of what could be if we projected our society and knowledge into the future, but the horrors as well. I sat listening to how our earthly crimes are no different, and our moral centers no less grounded, than those depicted in a dark series about a homeless civilization elsewhere in the universe, struggling with each other and the intelligent beings they created.

Our species is at a crossroads. We remain rather unsophisticated as wetware, while the hardware and software we create is surpassing our abilities physically and mentally. Cloud computing engulfs us, and as we destroy our natural ecology, we create an artificial one that slowly robs us of our privacy and individuality, our security and our personal boundaries. Interlocking grids, whether devoted to finance or energy or urban infrastructure, set up vulnerabilities that cause malcontents to wring their hands in glee, awaiting their turn to sabotage peace and order by corrupting those grids. Time is speeding up, as is the transformation of the earth to a new level of capabilities, and if we survive the possibility of climatic or nuclear or biological disaster, we must still survive greed, xenophobia, jealousy and pride. When the continued existence of the second comes into contact with the potentials of the first, we must turn to science fiction to sort out the possible outcomes. Because in the real world, we often lack the political and social will to do that until we are confronted with calamity.

I was there that night because I chair ThinkQuest New York City, an organization founded to engage students in digital technology through competitions. They build websites, create PSAs (funded by NBC and the Sci Fi Channel), work in teams, and are mostly from Title I schools (those that serve the lowest-income communities of children.) Courtesy of Sci Fi, we had 100 of our students there that night. Most were Battlestar Galactica fans. They were allowed to ask questions of the panelists, and their questions were fantastic. They probed issues of kids addicted to mobile technology, problems with human interrelationships, ethical dilemmas and human rights.

They proved what I have always believed — that science fiction should be compulsory reading and viewing for students at every grade level. I have often commented that my first science fiction was fairy tales. As a little girl, I loved fairy tales. They were often as dark and gruesome as grown-up science fiction, but they always made a moral point, projected human foibles, and had a happy ending. The magic inventions - wands, flying carpets, dancing slippers, invisible cloaks - were always capable of being used for good or evil. They made me believe that wisdom and goodness would always triumph over avarice and self-interest. Maybe little boys should read more fairy tales.

I grew into science fiction when the fairy tales seemed too far removed from the real world. Science fiction never was. It still isn’t. Thank goodness we have writers, producers and networks that continue to make science fiction accessible to successive generations of youngsters. Kudos to NBC and the Sci Fi (soon to be SyFy) channel, and to Bonnie Hammer and David Howe, for insisting the show be relevant and have integrity. And to all those who dedicate their lives to shedding light on who we are, what we are capable of, and the world we may one day inhabit.

If the congresses of the world were populated with the best science fiction writers of the past century, maybe our horizons would be further and our actions more reflective. Maybe we would move beyond our petty differences, and we would take the time to consider the implications of what we do to each other and with the “magic” tools we have created. Maybe we would survive.