Because the future has just started
There is something about old shoes. They suggest a story about someone’s life, and you know it is probably a very rich story. But you don’t know quite what that story is.
I am particularly taken by this pair of old work shoes, which I spotted recently in someone’s house. I have no idea how long they have been sitting there, but I suspect it’s been a while.
If only shoes could talk, imagine what stories they could tell us!
This evening we went on a virtual double date. The theme was wine tasting in exotic places around the world.
We and our friends both went on Zoom, and picked various handpicked backgrounds while describing past or future experiences at those places while tasting various excellent alcoholic beverages.
It was good to feel fun and non serious social connectedness, even at a physical distance. You might want to try it for yourself!
Today it was announced that the SIGGRAPH conference — the large yearly gathering of people in my field of computer graphics at the end of July — is going to be canceled. It will be replaced by something virtual, details to be determined.
The announcement was not a surprise. At this point it would be been much more surprising had it not been canceled.
Still, it is a big deal. This conference has been going on uninterrupted since 1974, which is significantly longer than most attendees have been alive.
When even the iconic gathering about all things virtual is forced to go virtual, attention must be paid. One more sign that the world may be changing in a fundamental way.
I was on a Zoom meeting yesterday. I had another Zoom meeting scheduled right after that one.
One of the people on the first meeting also sometimes joins in the second one. So at the end of the Zoom meeting I said to him “Are you going to join our other meeting?”
He looked into the camera and said “I have another meeting, will reconnect in an hour.” I was disappointed, because I had hoped he would be joining that second meeting.
But it turned out that he was talking to the other participants. He was telling them that he needed to take the next hour to join the meeting I was talking about.
This seems to be an inherent problem with video chat. Everyone is looking at the camera, so you are never sure who anyone is talking to.
I suppose our use of language might evolve to deal with this. For example, we might get into the habit of explicitly saying the name of whomever we are addressing.
But I’m not convinced that’s the right way to go, since it would detract from the richness of verbal communication. It would be much better if we could evolve our tools to better support multi-person conversations.
Something to work on!
Until today, I had thought that “Zoombies” was just a 2016 direct-to-TV movie about a zombie outbreak at a zoo (in case you were wondering, the animals all turn into flesh-eating zombies).
But today somebody pointed out to me that the term “Zoombies” has taken on another meeting. It is currently being used to describe young people who spend all of their time glued to a screen while using Zoom.
I kind of like the word in this context — it has a nice ring to it. And I guess that in the larger scheme of things, the phenomenon is not so bad.
In any case, it’s much better than all the animals turning into flesh eating zombies.
Business is booming for companies that offer goods and services to people who are not physically gathering together. Amazon and Netflix are but two examples of companies that are reaping the benefit of these strange and tragic times.
Yet at the same time, retail outlets, entertainment venues and transportation services are being devastated. Many will not be around when the pandemic is over.
Are we witnessing a permanent economic shift? Will the result of this pandemic be a fundamental realignment of local and global economies?
In two hundred years, historians will have the luxury of looking back, with the wisdom of hindsight, on the long term economic impact of the year 2020. I wonder what they will see.
Today we heard the strangest news of all
Oil prices fell to less than zero
Maybe they’ll continue in their fall
Then I can be an economic hero
I’ll just buy up lots of crude today
With every barrel earning lots of dough
Then I’ll give the money all away
To all my friends and everyone I know
After I posted my blog yesterday about the “coronawave”, I got an email from my cousin Ben, the coiner of the term. He had some very interesting insights on the subject.
He pointed out that the coronawave is not just a gesture of friendship. It is also a gesture of solidarity.
It is something that people are doing as a gesture of solidarity. Essentially, it is a way to say that “yes, we too are on mission.”
This sense that there is some extraordinary mission, and that we are all aligned with it, is generally found in times like these. We had it in NYC back in 2001, in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center.
People in New York City were kind to each other in the months that followed that terrible tragedy, and would acknowledge one another on the street. There was a general sense of being in this together, and of the need to look out for one another.
Alas, if that is true, then this friendly smile and wave between strangers is a behavior destined to die away. After things return to normal, people will no longer feel the requisite sense of shared mission.
I for one am going to miss the coronawave.
My cousin Ben (whom I suspect is reading this) told me of an awesome word he recently coined. The word is “coronawave”.
It refers to a social phenomenon very specific to this pandemic. It happens when you are walking along the road, and a stranger is walking in the other direction.
Inevitably, one of you will cross to the other side of the road, to maintain social distancing. And that’s when it happens.
As the two you you pass each other, you both smile and give each other a big friendly wave. That’s the coronawave.
Here’s the interesting bit. If there had been no pandemic, the two of you would most likely have completely ignored each other. But now you’re all warm and friendly.
It makes sense. You both feel awkward that you are each making a wide berth around the other, and you want to do something to help make it ok. So you give each other a big friendly smile and wave.
As social rituals go, this one is actually rather sweet. Now let’s see whether we can all manage to keep the ritual going after this pandemic is over.
This is a difficult time for the entire world. People of all ages are dying everywhere. Here in America, our 50 governors are each trying to protect the citizens within their respective states.
Sometimes, amidst all of the bleak news, people just need a laugh. Fortunately, that need is being filled.
In an inspired act of public entertainment, our Federal Government has found a rather ingenious way to make everyone feel better. Every day they stage a kind of absurdist comedy, in which some guy from a TV show pretends that he knows how to make everything better.
The genius of the show is the way it is scripted. The words spoken by the TV personality have obviously been carefully chosen to make him appear as stupid as possible.
The writers have created the illusion that the guy at the podium is just making up random stuff as he goes along, as though he is speaking from some inane parallel universe. When you think about it, it’s rather brilliant as entertainment.
I especially like that they are calling the show “Pour On The Utterly Stupid”. It even makes for a cool sounding acronym: POTUS