The world is currently in the midst of a massive technology gap. I do not refer here to the inequities in access to technology that unfortunately exists between the developed and developing world—the unequal distribution of and access to technology that keeps so much of the world mired in poverty and distress. No, the gap to which I refer is much closer to home. I’m talking about the lag time between the ever increasing, light-speed advances in technology and science and the ability of our primitive human brains to cope with those advances.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this gap in a startling way for me, and I can’t help but wonder if anyone else has noticed it.
The gap I’m referring to was especially prevalent in so-called developed countries like my own United States, and, unfortunately, still exists. I’m sure most of you reading this essay are familiar with the stories and scenes of large numbers of people refusing to take the vaccines because they were ‘developed too fast,’ or who refused to wear masks or practice social distancing because the virus was a ‘hoax.’ News flash, while the anti-vaxxers weren’t a factor in the 1918 influenza pandemic (only, I think, because we didn’t have vaccines then), there were people who refused to wear masks to help prevent the spread.
It would be easy to dismiss these poor wretches as just ignorant and uninformed, but there are just so many of them, and in today’s world, they have so many who know better who egg them on, I can’t just brush it aside. The people who don’t trust ‘science,’ scare the dickens out of me, because they are the types who in the past burned witches at the stake or drowned them, or the Greeks who caused Socrates to drink hemlock poison because he refused to recognize ‘the gods recognized by the state,’ and ‘corrupted the youth’ with his heresy. When Socrates refused to abandon his belief in rationality, the 70-year-old was sentenced to death.
I have news for you, people, while the death sentence for heresy (at least in the vast majority of the world’s countries) no longer exists, there are people out there who are willing to kill you because you believe differently from them. Case in point, those who refuse to wear a mask to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID virus, are in effect condemning you and anyone else with whom they come into contact to possible death.
Worse, they are abetted in this lunacy by unscrupulous politicians who are only concerned with clinging to power, and far-right media organizations that deal in conspiracy theories and zaniness in the name of ‘market share.’ People we expect to know better aid and abet these lies and deceptions and seem unconcerned about the deadly outcomes.
What really distresses me is that these people, politicians, and organizations scream about their ‘rights’ as they trample on one of the most basic rights of other people, the right to life.
With global deaths approaching four million out of nearly 200 million confirmed cases, there is a pressing need to close both of these technological gaps. In the face of global pandemics, where borders are meaningless and, as has been demonstrated by COVID-19, viral infections can spread globally in days, even hours, we need to bring all countries up to the same or nearly the same level in their capability to identify, manage, and treat these deadly outbreaks. But even more important is the need to lessen the lag time that exists between advances in science and technology and the ability of people to understand and adapt to it.
We can no longer afford this level of ignorance and rejection of science and technology. Technology will continue to advance in quantum leaps, but if our mental ability to understand and accept keeps moving forward at the current snail’s pace, one has to wonder how much longer we as a species will survive.
There’s an old saying; ‘ignorance is bliss,’ but this kind of bliss can be deadly. – NWI
