by Shivam Panda
In the dusk of what is now earth, the sun is barely visible, not as it hardly peeks over the horizon, but because of the sky being dominated by opaque clouds. Clouds, not of moisture, but of toxic gas and waste accumulated over the past century. We were aware of the pollution taking over, a result of the 'artificial' being produced faster than the 'natural'. This self-awareness was a conclusion drawn all but too late.
Source: Hacker Noon
Overpopulation used to be a problem but humans’ great survival instinct took us to planets and moon farther than we could fathom. Upon vessels built to run on the kinetic energy of light, the first humans travelled to the very next galaxy to settle. Soon the broken satellites and debris from unfortunate collisions, made the space trach density so huge that the exosphere was unbreachable. Those who were able to relocate to other planets relocated, but those who couldn’t afford it, didn’t. For them, it was like a life sentence, trapped in a prison of their own ancestors’ wrongdoing. This desolate state privy to all the knowledge gained over a century, but trapped on the ground due to wrong timing and lack of resources.
The people are the same but the lives they lead aren't. Days spent wearing oxygen masks or air purifiers, eyes stressed under bleak lighting, battles against nature's wrath and famine-stricken wastelands to navigate. The battles are the same but the way they are fought are have changed. The geeks are the new cool, command over mental proficiency is valued over the bodily brawn, for now, wars are won with automated robots and remote-controlled drones. Military camps train hand-eye coordination and not physical prowess. Energy is created in nuclear reactors, not harnessed from natural sources, as nature has given up on us and we on it. Everything around us manmade.
This is a future not too distant, and highly probable, in fact too probable. Pollution is out of control, technology is on the rise and the number of people on this planet is certainly not decreasing. But the future is hard to think of in the state the world is in, so let's talk about the relative present. As of 30 March 2017, reusable rockets have become a thing of reality, courtesy of Elon Musk. This reduced the cost of space ventures to 10% of what it was previously. Solar Sails, a new, up-and-coming form of space transportation, uses the radiation pressure of electromagnetic waves to generate momentum. This would require much less energy than current space travel. The proposed design weighs about 12% of current satellites of similar dimensions, and the fuel requirement would consequentially be much less. Prospective technology tells us that using high energy lasers on such satellites could propel them at speeds of 240,000kmph.
Sources: Wikipedia, The Verge
Companies like Boston Technologies have made semi-automated humanoid robots that can lift up to a hundred pounds, travel at speeds like 40kmph, and even do backflips. Technology has become so advanced in robotics that dog-like bots are used to test out balance and mobility functions. There are Robots That everyone knows about everything. Like Sophia, a state-of-the-art AI capable of conversations, humour, and even singing. She is the first inanimate to be a credit card holder as well as a citizenship holder. She’s given a speech at the United Nations General Assembly as well.
This is all definitely extremely exciting, but what advances has this quarantine inspired. Pandemics like this and many more have bared their teeth in the past, and while technology cannot do anything to prevent it, it plays a major role in ‘damage-control’. Technologies like mobiles, cloud, analytics, robotics, AI/ML, 4G/5G, and high-speed internet help prevent the spread and empowers and educates the less fortunate.
Misinformation about the number of fatalities, diagnosis and treatment options, vaccines, medicines, government policies, etc., creates more panic and anxiety among the population. The result can be widespread chaos, panic buying, hoarding of essential commodities, price rise, violence on the streets, discrimination, conspiracy theories, and so on. By making the right information openly available transparency can be created in society and apt, informed decisions can be taken to resolve high priority situations. International corporations like Facebook, Google, YouTube etc, have made efforts to help the masses by striving to publicize credible information from sources like WHO and local government authorities.
Source: The Verge
When a new pandemic strikes, the first question on everybody’s mind is if there’s a drug to cure it or a vaccine to prevent it. The world is now desperate to find ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus and to find an effective treatment. Technology is becoming an enabler to make the process faster. AI is playing an important role in suggesting components of a vaccine by understanding viral protein structures and helping medical researchers scour tens of heaps of relevant research papers at an unprecedented pace. Teams at the Allen Institute for AI, Google DeepMind have created AI tools, shared data sets and research results. In January, Google DeepMind introduced AlphaFold, a cutting-edge system that predicts the 3D structure of a protein-based on its genetic sequence. The University of Texas at Austin and the National Institutes of Health used a popular biology technique to create the first 3D atomic-scale map of the part of the virus that attaches to and infects human cells—the spike protein.
Source: NASA
Today the greatest risk of worldwide catastrophe is pandemic, an enormously infectious virus that's more devastating and may kill many people. The transparency that we have gained through this current COVID-19 situation, we now understand that we were not geared up for this pandemic situation. The next pandemic is not a matter of “if it happens”, but “when it happens”. Would we be prepared in advance against the pandemic at an individual and collective level? What we actually need is preparedness. Indeed, the technology has advanced more and will continue to advance exponentially, but the human institutions and societies need to accelerate in adapting to it and continue investing in building the technology systems for the preparedness. After the COVID-19 outbreak, it is evident that, from AI to robotics, the technology innovations are helping to manage the epidemic and better equip to fight future public health emergency in a timely, systematic, and calm manner.
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