The anecdote, ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to’ wherever manifests itself for a number of paths. One interpretation; we often end up somewhere other than expected.
We find ourselves at another historical precipice. Some suggest Armageddon, the end of life as we know it and the emergence of a new normal. This writer only agrees with the last two words.
New Normal
Since the advent of Covid-19 in the United States (probably before) the medical community has been doing some great things at hyper speed. Now it is hard to keep up with the creative, innovative and downright amazing work being done at the global scale.
Some argue that the new normal will include an army of remote workers. Probably some truth to that but perhaps more importantly will be the recognition that society can quickly ‘scale’ to the global level when confronted with new and unknown threats.
Reduced Cycle Time and Cost
This pundit has long advocated that the use of knowledge enabled by technology can reduce project cycle time dramatically. It can also significantly reduce project cost as well. If we visualize the Covid-19 global initiative as a project, then perhaps most importantly we can decrease the timeline pointedly.
To be clear, this writer has no medical training and is only prognosticating that the use of knowledge enabled by technology can reduce the overall time and impact of the pandemic. After all, this is not 1918!
For example, many will be familiar with the TV sitcom, M*A*S*H, set in the Korean War of the early 1950s. We are seeing modern day versions of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital with the deployment of new ‘temporary’ hospital beds to virus hot spots like NYC. The medical profession has established long standing triage protocols as well.
Moreover, the use of 3D printing has augmented the medical equipment manufacturing process in ways no one could have foreseen on January 1, 2020. Changes in Clinical Trial protocols and other pharmaceutical related processes are, as the saying goes, ‘on steroids’ destroying this virus.
The list goes on and shortly after this publication, this post will probably be outdated—the rate of positive change is so explosive right now.
Donald Rumsfeld gets credit for saying, “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.” However, this construct has its roots in the 1950s.
I am betting that last sentence will fall sooner rather than later. We are rapidly learning what we don’t know we don’t know.
Godspeed to all on the front line and those of us who are not will continue to support you in every way known and about the be known that we can. This writer grows less concerned about the final outcome every day. It seems that collectively Humankind is rising up to the challenge. We will prevail!
How is your knowledge enabled to contribute to the demise of this pandemic?
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