The pandemic is just the start

I have been looking at the brighter side of things but also been pragmatically thinking about the future.

Its been a while since I heard from Noam Chomsky and this speech with additional footage is powerful I have been thinking a lot about the near future beyond this pandemic.

First of all, I do think we are talking about a long run on covid19, I suspect it will be Q3-4 when the vaccines actually become available to everyday people (people who are not at high risk, on the front line or anything like that). Pinning our hopes on things going back to the old normal is not going to happen. Heck even my mum the other day said this to me on our last family call! We already prepared ourselves to not spend the festive season together.

The festival season also brings to the UK, the harsh ramifications of Brexit. Something a lot people have blocked out of their mind as they focus on Covid19. Don’t even get me started about the this as its deeply upsetting and really encourages me to just leave this country.

However as Noam talks about in his speech, the elephants in the room (I would say blackswans but they are not because we are very aware of these, or at least we should be!).

  1. Global nuclear war
  2. Environmental collapse

Its clear if Trump wins another term as president of America, the countdown to both global nuclear war and environmental collapse will be so much closer than we can imagine. The election is a concern for many reasons but nuclear war and environmental collapse is something we should all be aware and thinking about; and I don’t mean disappearing into our escape pods.

We already passed the point of no environmental change but we are actively increasing accelerating things including future pandemics. Imagine pandemics are simply a side-effect of our environmental impact. That I feel gives it the real scope of the challenge in front of us.

This can all be a harsh reality kick in the teeth. But honestly see it as a kick up the ass for us all. Together we can do it but we all have to acknowledge the reality and look beyond the current pandemic.

Author: Ianforrester

Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser. Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io

One thought on “The pandemic is just the start”


  1. Its rare when everything comes together like this but I have another thing I wanted to share.
    Myself and Lianne Kerlin in mid summer interviewed a number of well respected people about the human values framework. Its something I blogged about previously.

    BBC Research & Development is examining how core human values relate to digital media use, in order to enhance service design and improve impact measurement. Empirical research has identified fourteen core values, all underpinned by human needs and psychological drivers. These are the basis of the Human Values Framework, a new approach to the design of online services.
    In this series of podcasts Lead Researcher Lianne Kerlin is joined by Senior Firestarter Ian Forrester to discuss the Human Values Framework from different contexts. They are joined by experts in design, social impact of technology and other disciplines.

    Originally it was meant to be done live for Re:publica 2020 but the material we got was so good and of course covid19 ruled out republica, we decided to turn them into 5 separate edited podcasts.
    Number one is about the human values framework, with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Solana Larson, Katja Bego, Paulien Dresscher, David Jay and Brian Suda

    [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/924630661" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

    #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;”>#cccccc; text-decoration: none;” title=”2LO rebooted” href=”https://soundcloud.com/2lorebooted” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>2LO rebooted · #cccccc; text-decoration: none;” title=”The Human Values Framework: Episode 1″ href=”https://soundcloud.com/2lorebooted/the-human-values-framework-episode-1″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>The Human Values Framework: Episode 1

    Number two: Is about applying the human values framework, with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Katja Bego, Paulien Dresscher and Solana Larson

    [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/925966210" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

    #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;”>#cccccc; text-decoration: none;” title=”2LO rebooted” href=”https://soundcloud.com/2lorebooted” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>2LO rebooted · #cccccc; text-decoration: none;” title=”Human Values Framework: Episode 2″ href=”https://soundcloud.com/2lorebooted/human-values-framework-episode-2″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Human Values Framework: Episode 2

    Keep an eye on the human values podcast playlist on 2LO’s soundcloud account for parts 3, 4 and 5. RSS feed is here if you are old skool like me. But in the meanwhile I’d like to thank my co-host Lianne Kerlin. Our guidance and podcast expert Bill Thompson and of course our gracious experts who without them it wouldn’t be the series its turned out to be… Massive thanks to…
    Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
    Brian Suda
    David Jay
    Katja Bogo
    Mark Surman
    Paulien Dresscher
    Solana Larsen
    Yancey Strickler
    All wonderful people, so what are you wanting for? Get listening and the news announcements don’t stop there…

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