Tags
It is about life in the time of covid.
Through centuries the human race has faced many catastrophes, be it Vesuvius , pandemics or tsunamis, and many unsung heroes have perished in that human struggle to survive.
But whenever we face an unprecedented cataclysmic event, the rich and the poor, the known and the unknown, all have come together to save the race.
Every time such a calamity occurs, the collective intelligence of the most successful organism that nature created has come up with innovative ways to deal with it through relentless scientific quest.
Sometimes it is about utilising what is available in the best way we can.
The story of internet is something worth mentioning.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the USA funded research into time-sharing of computers in the 1960s. Then fundamental researches in internet were done by Paul Baran and Donald Davies and they were able to develop and incorporate what they discovered into the design of ARPANET and other similar networks.
Then internet protocols were standardised
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and wrote the first web browser in 1990 while working at CERN, Switzerland. He would not have thought this invention of his would have such an impact on the human race, and never would have dreamt that this idea of his could even save thousands of lives.
The parallel world of internet and WWW began.
And life changed.
Say thirty years back, if this pandemic had occurred, where would we be ?
Along with all these developments in vaccines, testing and so on, the internet is playing a crucial role in helping us fight Covid 19.
We are able to support the vulnerable by using Telemedicine, telephone assessments, and working from home. For this, we are to a degree indebted to Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter for getting and distributing scientific information to the common man.
To learn hand washing technique, there is Youtube, Facebook, etc etc. To obtain the supplies you cannot get from the supermarkets there is the world of online shopping.
Google will tell the common man about the infection in his city or town.
Of course there is misinformation too. Once, addictive social distancing was considered the curse of internet interfaces. It was isolating mankind into islets of self-imposed solitude
But now a boon…
I am sure the people involved in developing internet etc may not have thought about the impact it would have on the human race.
They followed their instincts, they did what they felt was right to them.
“That man, the unsubmissive and first, stands in the opening chapter of every legend mankind has recorded about its beginning… Ayn Rand”
If we did not have the technologies developed by the many known and unknown people I mentioned above, I think our race would be facing the unthinkable….many more deaths. A waste land. If the human race wants to thank something for making sure we fight back and do not succumb to this devastating illness, it is to the science and the scientific quest of the human race.
I remember a few lines from T S Eliot’s Waste Land
“April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.”
Yes April is nearly here… but not the one Eliot wrote with a heavy heart. We will smile and enjoy the daffodils that bloom in our courtyards and will not forget the way side flowers give meaning to our life in this grim time of Covid. We will also not forget the needy and the ones that are invisible to others and sidelined.
“Yes, we will stand together and face and fight this pandemic. We may die but we will not surrender.”