Post-Covid: The Birth Of A New Society

[Jon]

Society has changed. Forget politics. Just focus on how Covid has changed us all and our attitudes.

What changes do you think the pandemic has made to our way of life, things that will carry on into the future?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I think that partly depends on how long it takes for global herd immunity to be established. And also for how long vaccine-based immunity lasts.

 

[Isaac]

Universities, school districts and employers have invested vast sums of money to facilitate do-from-home. Many will be reluctant to walk away from it anytime soon. Employees have proved they can work from home in a way that employers can no longer pretend "I'm not sure that would work". (In the context of Microsoft Access and VPN and wi-fi, pretend I never said that).

Wearing a mask in general - something that previously in life, I had only seen individuals from Asia do - will be considered normal. Even after most people no longer think it's necessary, this is still a huge change - the appearance of a person wearing a face mask = the appearance of normality; this is something brand new to the Americas hemisphere and, as such, a permanent change I think.

Fear. A new item on the list of things we worry about in the world. While a small group of scientist-minded people in our world surely have "always' worried about this, I believe the reality that a major virus could come in and wipe out humanity at any time.......That type of fear will now be commonplace. We will realize that it is just as realistic as a major earthquake/tsunami wiping out California, or other catastrophic events people generally worry about. Perhaps it will even influence how insurance policies are written, or what people think about when they get insurance, whether business or personal.

I know you said forget about politics, so I'm trying to make this seem at least mostly apolitical, but let's just call it the ongoing discussion about precisely how we incorporate science into the solving of problems in our world, COVID has brought that always-has-existed issue to the forefront of everyone's minds.

Elderly people now give fist bumps.

I think the most important question is, will Chipotle ever do $1 delivery again.

 

[Jon]

A nice take on things @Isaac. I agree with most of what you said there. I've mentioned in other posts that there has to be a shift of resources away from nuclear weapons and towards pandemic protections and response. I'm not talking about removing nuclear, but say take 30% of the nuclear budget and shift towards science, stockpiles of protective gear and so on. Nukes are pricey so 30% would be a lot of money to allocate.

 

[CJ_London]

don't know about the rest of the world, but I suspect in the UK once masks are deemed unnecessary, banks and other establishments that required you to remove crash helmets and other apparel that hid your facial features will reinstate that requirement.

 

[Jon]

I think that partly depends on how long it takes for global herd immunity to be established. And also for how long vaccine-based immunity lasts.

Lots of unknowns there, particularly as the virus is mutating. However, the good news is that the scientists say that the RNA type drugs can be edited in a matter of a few weeks to tackle the new shapes of Covid mutations.

 

[EdwardsC]

The pandemic has definitely created an aversion to living the big city life. I’ve lost the desire to even visit a large city. Where folks are in constant contact with each other in crowded spaces like buildings, public transport, and parks. I am sure the pandemic will change the way urban planners and architects think about building and developing cities in the future.

 

[moke123]

Work from home is never going away.
One collateral effect will be less of a need for large office space. Probably a good time to invest in the a la carte office space companies where you can rent an office or meeting room for an hour or a day as needed.

 

[Jon]

I like that investment idea. Must be other similar ones.

 

[harpygaggle]

The Government never neglected their duty despite of the COVID issues. A lot of attention was only given to it specially by the social media.
Eventually, people will get over it once the vaccines are properly distributed.

 

[Jon]

I have read that the huge investment in vaccine research has led to an acceleration in medical discoveries that go way beyond just vaccines. Perhaps this will help with the development of life extension science, something I have great interest in. The older I get, the more the interest!

 

[Cronk]

Just like the huge investment in putting the first man on the moon led to all sorts of advancements on so many fronts.

 

[Jon]

We have Quantum computers just around the corner. When we reach "quantum supremacy", we enter a new era in problem solving and discovery. Combine this with deep learning and other AI advancements and a whole new world beckons.

 

[AccessBlaster]

according to PBS

"If this space study is right, humans have never left Earth’s atmosphere"

We may have longer than we thought.

 

[NauticalGent]

An interesting point...

 

[harpygaggle]

We have Quantum computers just around the corner. When we reach "quantum supremacy", we enter a new era in problem solving and discovery. Combine this with deep learning and other AI advancements and a whole new world beckons.

I've watched a movie involving Quantum and AI advancements and they were able to make a time machine called "Uploader". Do you think its possible to invent it?

 

[Jon]

I haven't watched Uploader so I do not know what the time machine does. I believe they have done experiments where they went microscopically forward in time, but not back, or something like that. Quantum mechanics is so bizarre that who knows what is or isn't possible. Many physicists believe there are (infinite?) parallel universes, for example.

 

[Isaac]

Just like the huge investment in putting the first man on the moon led to all sorts of advancements on so many fronts.

I think the public would be well served by there being a push to educate all of us about the various ways that space exploration advances many causes. I, for one, have always "believed" that it surely must, but couldn't really articulate it and have taken it mostly on faith. I would like to better understand the various ways that all the $$ spent on space exploration benefits mankind - I can imagine that it probably does, but, I think so far the average person's connection between the two is kind of nebulous. A vague sort of notion that it's probably good, penetrated by the occasional reminder from a late night TV infomercial about a $150 frying pan claiming to use "NASA technology, it's so good".

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I think the public would be well served by there being a push to educate all of us about the various ways that space exploration advances many causes.

I think the side-effects and ramifications would be better if we educated folks about biology, to include evolution, the true meaning(lessness) of race, the generally benign nature of vaccines, and the physiological causes of gender dysphoria, in hopes of wiping out certain very negative forces in this world. Those four topics are HUGE contributors to issues in societal troubles.

 

[Cronk]

Hear, Hear. One word really, tolerance.