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The prophets of change are yet to make their case.
Lately, we’ve all been reading more than we did in years. And almost every article speaks of a world that will never be the same again. Prepare for an entirely different reality, they say. And when you’ve been adjusting to a lockdown, you’re mentally prepared to take all these prophecies to heart. Unfortunately for the thought leaders shoving this idea down our throats, the same idle time that got us reading also got us thinking.
What really stands to change? So far, the advocates of a re-imagined world have not produced any evidence to support their case; they just blow the smoke of uncertainty into our eyes and proceed to preach how we should start anew.
So, what has “changed” in the months of COVID-19. Not much in terms of innovation and certainly not enough to indicate that the drummed up big change is coming. Shake off the lockdown blues and look around.
More online shopping, video calls, and items available via delivery platforms? Despite the hype, it all appears as increased consumption, brought on by a force majeure, of existing innovations. What we are seeing right now does not differ greatly from what the world is accustomed to in times of financial crisis. – only with the tragic twist of human suffering; some gaining, some losing, and everyone adjusting. If airline tickets were to sell for half price due to a steep fall in oil prices one summer, and people traveled more for a couple of months, would that prompt us to say that our world has forever changed?
Some claim that the role of big data and AI leapt a decade in just a few months. I would love to hear that from the labs that have been struggling to move forward with their vaccine research at a pace that made us all feel we were back in the 1980s.
