Humanity 2.0: the corona is a chance to upgrade us

Every year, about 5 billion people in the world were traveling or flying on business trips to different places. I wonder how that will happen in the after Corona.
It may take a few years, but it’s back to its original level. Even if a new virus appears again, I don’t think it would stop people from moving.
On the other hand, when considered on a country-by-country basis, changes in global supply chains are unavoidable. Just as Yoshinoya in Japan, which had previously only offered gyudon (beef bowl) due to the effects of mad cow disease, began offering pork bowl and chicken ones as well.
It is natural that companies around the world have already started to revise their BCP (business continuity planning) in consideration of the new virus so that they can survive as a company even if a new virus occurs somewhere in the world.
For corporations, the enemy was not competitors, government, nor wars. The unseen virus was the enemy.
There are 5.7 million people infected worldwide and 1.7 million in the United States (as of May 27, Johns Hopkins University). The U.S. is the world’s worst hit. They are on the verge of taking measures that could cost as much as 6 trillion dollars. Clearly, it’s bigger than the Lehman shock, bigger than the international financial crisis, and has had an impact that approaches or exceeds the Great Depression of 1929.
In the past, the U.S. as a global leader has stepped up to the plate to help countries around the world in global crises while taking care of their own affairs, of course. However, the United States today is not willing to take on the role of a global leader because only their own country is the first priority. It is also true that there is a great deal of goodness in it for its own people.
On the other hand, China, the source of the crisis, was fortunate enough to be the first country to overcome the crisis. While the U.S., Italy, the U.K., and Japan are still in a state of emergency “war” where the response to the corona crisis must still be a top priority, China is regaining some degree of “peacetime”.
To put it bluntly, China now got some more room to spare than other developed countries. This has led to “mask diplomacy,” in which the mass production of masks is prepared and the distribution of those masks to countries in crisis.
China is trying to take over a role of a global leader, once played by the U.S while the U.S. is dealing with the crisis. There are not a few European countries that are willing to accept that support.
The country at the onset of the crisis is stepping up to become the closest thing to a global leader when you look at it from the outside. That kind of geopolitical and structural change could happen.
In Beijing, Los Angeles, Delhi and other cities that had been experiencing pollution problems due to the movement of cars, there have been a series of reports that the air has been cleaned up by refraining from going outside.
In 2011, Steven Soderbergh directed “Contagion”. This movie shows how a new virus pandemic like the new Corona will spread around the world. What was depicted in that film is now happening in real life.
In the movie, the virus is transmitted by a bat and a pig, and the virus is passed from a chef in a Chinese restaurant to a woman with a handshake.
The trigger for the bat to come into contact with the pig is deforestation to build the plant. New types of avian and swine flu like H1N1 arise every year because of factories that raise birds and pigs that are raised in overcrowded meat plants to satisfy the appetite of an overgrown human population.
Environmental issues and food issues. And a virus. These are inextricably linked, and the fact that a virus can cause an economic crisis of such magnitude means that the environmental and food crisis can be a top issue for all businesses.
The new coronavirus was fortunate enough to have spread to almost every country in the world in excess of 190 countries. For almost all countries, it is now a top issue. Isn’t this the first time in the history of the world that so many countries are discussing and taking measures on a single issue in such depth?
The virus is not an issue. Viruses are the result. It is the way we humans treat the earth that has brought about the virus. Deforestation of the earth and the realization of an unrestricted food supply. We humans have treated the planet that way, the result of which is an economic crisis and infectious damage caused by viruses.
We also need a city 2.0 to counter the virus, but not to produce the result of a virus, but to face the new earth. Humanity 2.0 and Earth 2.0 will also be needed.
If extraterrestrial life, which is a little weaker than humanity, attacked the Earth, the world would become one. However, at the point where extraterrestrials have the technological capability to reach Earth, they will certainly be stronger than us humans.
It is difficult to find a common enemy on a global scale. And this time, that common enemy has appeared.
No, it may be the impetus for humanity to evolve into Humanity 2.0, which is not an enemy, but a coexisting partner.
America is no longer the overwhelming global leader it once was. China is wisely trying to take that position, but there will be many countries that will oppose it in a country that has information control and is not a democracy.
We have now entered the era of the G-zero. There is no standout G7, and there is no G20. In front of the virus, we humans stood at the same starting line.
This is a great opportunity that should not be missed. Since we have an information society where billions of people are connected by smartphones, I think it’s time for the entire world to increase trust and unity.
It is time we humans to update to humanity 2.0.

Noritaka Kobayashi, Ph.D, 19 April 2020

Translated from a part of the below note.