This is an amazing time to be alive. I don't even think we realize the magnitude of the changes we are going through right now. I may be wrong, but I think the history books will record this moment kind of like the start of the Industrial Revolution, or the end of the Middle Ages. When was the last time the entire world was experiencing the same threat at the same time? I don't think it has ever happened before.
In an odd way I feel vindicated. I was aloof and kept my distance long before social distancing became a thing. I was way ahead of the curve in running a business out of my home as well. Ditto for bringing manufacturing home and not depending on China. I've been wary of globalism for as long as I can remember. My reluctance to embrace a global society had nothing to do with avoiding a plague. It just seemed to make sense. I watched the computer industry make the shift from centralized mainframes to distributed computing and the birth of the cloud. Having a multitude of nodes made systems failsafe.
Why didn't the entire world operate like the Internet? It is almost impossible to break the Internet. Nothing is centralized and nobody is in charge. If a server goes down, data is automatically rerouted on a different path. The network fixes itself. Having manufacturing countries like China send goods on a one way path to consuming countries like the United States seemed a lot like the old fashioned mainframe computing model to me. What we really needed was a lot of little countries, all making their own stuff and following their own rules. If one country fails, the others just keep chugging along.
So here we are. Everyone is clamoring to bring back essential industries to the United States. Virtually every country in the world is shutting their borders. Nobody feels comfortable getting too close to strangers. What is going to happen when none of this feels strange anymore? I think society has fundamentally changed. The longer the world remains in lockdown, the more permanent the changes will become.
I wouldn't want to be in the commercial real estate business right now. A lot of people aren't going to want to return to an office and a lot of companies aren't going to want the expense of a large office if they don't need it. I read recently that NASA is now operating the Curiosity Rover from team member's homes. Jeez. If you can drive a Mars rover from your bedroom, I'd say you don't really need to go to to the office for a status meeting.
Do you ever look down when you are flying across the United States? It's mostly empty. Why are we still living in cities? Cities are obsolete. The virus is proving that it's not that good to live all bunched together. We could spread out and all have nice homes with several acres of land. There's plenty of room. Little factories and research labs could provide jobs almost anywhere. Amazon drones could bring your stuff directly to your front door. Telemedicine could provide access to good doctors even if you lived in the middle of nowhere. Crime would diminish when there are no victims nearby. It all sounds pretty good to me. Some of you might be lonely, but not me.
Our new forehead thermometer arrived today. Now that taking your temperature has become a thing, we couldn't remember which of our thermometers had been up a dog's butt. This new toy will take care of that. Janet and I weeded a messy front garden this afternoon. Some of the weeds were the size of small trees. Oh, well. Better late than never. The cleanup effort was a lot of work but it was oddly satisfying. The area looks great now. I may add a layer of smooth river rocks to make the garden look a little more polished.
I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow. Whatever it is, it's a safe bet that there'll be plenty of time.
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