The world is turned upside down
Originally published by: Find your digital self | FySelf Blog
The world is turned upside down, does anyone doubt it?
Today is April 22, 2020 and I make these notes dedicated to those who once believed in this idea of FySelf. And to also those who actively dedicated ourselves entirely to turning this utopia into reality.
I especially dedicate it to all those who make up the multidisciplinary team that is currently developing this platform. To the computer scientists, journalists, psychologists, engineers, doctors and scientists who work tirelessly on this idea, in any possible way. I also dedicate these notes to my children, family and friends.
To all I say that we are about to present the First Social Identity Network. The name happens to be FySelf and effort and dedication are word you definitevely you can use to descrive it.
Times of physical distancing, but also social integration
Today’s circumstances, derived from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic causing the COVID-19 disease, will mark the history of humanity forever.
Today we are at home, in a kind of house arrest without ever having been on a court, complying with the so-called “social distancing”. This is the worst terminology we can use. But convincing ourselves to be physically separated from one another to avoid contagion is key.
Wouldn’t it be better to call for physical distancing, yes, but accompanied by international social integration? A social distancing in its broadest sense would imply an emotional distance that also affects the sense of community. Selfishness is the last thing we can allow in these moments where social cohesion is of the essence.
How many times have we not heard the phrase “everything is already invented”, only to discover that we have not yet seen everything? It really seems that the coronavirus pandemic was something from fiction movies. Or perhaps we simply went into the time machine many years ago where diseases made communities, entire populations disappear?
History shows that the five deadliest pandemics have been smallpox, measles, the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918, the black plague and HIV, with the ‘variola virus’ standing out to date, for being the cause of smallpox, which in conservative calculations estimated to have killed over 300 million humans.
The latest technologies cannot solve all problems
How is it possible that today a tiny microscopic infectious agent has turned the world upside down? Can you believe that this happens to us in a supposedly modern era? An era where the most advanced technologies predominate: satellite communication, Web 3.0, the Internet of things, the 5G network. We are about having tourist trips to space or even visit the planet Mars.
There are multiple developments in nanotechnology, robotics and advances in regenerative medicine in the search for the immortality of the human being. We are talking about lengthening of life on this planet. While, on the other hand, many persist in dedicating millions of dollars to using scientific advances to create weapons . Not for saving lives, but to destroy it, be they nuclear, biological or chemical mass destruction weapons.
I can’t help thinking how stunning it is that we spend so much resources and energy fighting each other.
What use are wars if we are dying?
You have thought that we are asking families to stay home and there are millions of people who are homeless and millions of others who are currently in refugee centers.
How can a family living in a favela, with several cohabitants in a small room perhaps with tin walls, apply social distancing? And what options do the invisible people of the earth have, those who do not even have an identity or health document when they arrive at a hospital center if they barely know their name written on paper?
We know that millions of people have lost their jobs. Many today are at home, trapped by fear of bills that will continue to come with or without a pandemic. Others will simply be wondering if they will still be able to meet their goals or see the bride who only contacted them through a screen for weeks.
Therefore, this is not just a health crisis: it is already a political, economic, social and values crisis in which the “everyone for himself” philosophy is not the solution.
What comes after the world manages to get out of this pandemic?
Will a sick world remain? My answer is yes, but of needs and deficiencies. Perhaps we will come out of the physical ailment, we will placate the coronavirus and we will continue to exist as a species, but social differences will be further aggravated.
If this human experience could be of any use, it is to establish a true global globalization of brotherhood and solidarity, leaving aside physical barriers, but above all mental ones. Let us take humanity all by the hand, and understand that the future of the planet belongs to everyone, or it will not belong to anyone.
So let’s fight for a better world, taking care of the environment. Let’s avoid deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and global warming. Let’s use technologies to make people’s lives easier, and let’s put the future above all our goals, more collectively than individually.
Hopefully a capitulation in the human mind will emerge from this bitter experience. We owe it to our doctors, fighters on war footing who sacrifice themselves equally on all continents. We also owe it to the scientists who will, I am sure, discover the vaccines and the methodology to contain this pandemic. It is they who will make those who wield power understand how humanity can find better ways to act together, and grow in the face of difficulties.
Let’s turn back to our celestial sphere and return it to its place. Let’s tie up, let’s anchor; once and for all let us release the sails of human well-being.
