Yet to Come

 (This one is from three years ago.)

* What if the Coronavirus Crisis Is Just a Trial Run? -- The year 2020 gave us a glimpse of something radically new: tensions in politics, finance and geopolitics intersecting with a natural shock on a global scale. (Adam Tooze/NYT)

***

If we've entered a new reality, as per today's top link from the Times, I for one welcome it. Yes the coronavirus is horrible, the political/economic/culture wars are dispiriting, and all of it fades into insignificance as we stare global climate change in the face.

I accept all that. But we've been long overdue to make fundamental changes in the way we live anyway and maybe now is our chance. It's time to take that darker path down into the woods and see where it leads.

Forests are one of the best places to think and feel. Trees communicate with each other through their roots, which connect far below the surface. They seek each other out, offer comfort and warn of danger.

When you're in a forest, if you let their whispers in, you'll hear the trees talking to you.

The same is true of other wild places. I've hiked beaches all over the world and the more remote the beach the more it has to say. Every beach is connected to some other shore by the tides that wash vast distances back and forth, carrying messages from one land mass to another.

If all of this sounds silly, consider your dreams. We classify them into good ones and nightmares, but they persist either way and there's no real escaping from them. Even waking up doesn't help.

But we also have our rational side, that wonderful ability to apply logic and collect evidence before we make decisions. Most of us try to make sense of what we do, if only so we can explain it to one another.

There are all sorts of economic theories suggesting that the sum of many irrational choices by individuals add up to a collective rationality. I may not be getting that exactly right but isn't that how economists explain the movements of the futures markets?

Quantum physics takes all of this out to the furthest place we've been able to venture intellectually, where time, space and consciousness all become relative. Starting with Einstein, physicists have been either getting clearer or cloudier as time passes. Take your pick.

Somewhere beyond the rational is the instinctive, where we know what we can trust when we hear it from the trees or the ocean or our dreams -- or our hearts. They propel us forward to explore.

This may be the path to a future where everything changes. We may be living with wave after wave of pandemics, natural disasters, and other disruptions. Our first instinct may be to huddle down in place, become more conservative, seek what is safe and familiar.

Or we may venture out, try to embrace the unknown and learn from it.

Everyone alive now is engaged in this struggle whether we acknowledge it or not. We have a will to survive but at times we get overwhelmed and want to give up. Don't give up.

The best part is yet to come.

HEADLINES:

• Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school used as a shelter kills at least 80, Palestinian officials say (AP)

• Israeli attack on Gaza school renews calls for US to end support for Israel (Al Jazeera)

• Harris Leads Trump in Three Key States, Times/Siena Polls Find — New surveys of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania taken this week offer the latest indication of a dramatic reversal in standing for the Democratic Party since President Biden abandoned his re-election bid. (NYT)

• Harris rallies crowds on abortion message, while Trump treads lightly (WP)

• A Trump campaign built to battle Biden is forced to recalibrate to Kamala Harris (NPR)

• Worried about losing to Kamala, Trump mad he can’t ‘live in the past’: Melber breakdown (MSNBC)

• Trump’s Helicopter Jumble Is Only His Latest Mix-Up (Mother Jones)

• The GOP’s new worry: Trump can’t drive a coherent message (WP)

• “Google is a Monopolist” – Wrong and Right Ways to Think About Remedies (Tech Policy)

• 'Thousands' of troops part of incursion aiming to 'destabilise' Russia, says top Ukrainian official (France24)

• As Ukraine Pushes Deeper Into Russia, Moscow Sends Reinforcements (NYT)

• Iran will deliver hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia (Reuters)

• Robots can now train themselves with new "practice makes perfect" algorithm (TechSpot)

• AI could be the breakthrough that allows humanoid robots to jump from science fiction to reality (The Conversation)

• Generative AI Has a 'Shoplifting' Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It (Wired)

• Report Finds It Impossible To Save Money (The Onion)