BY SUNJIT SINGH FLORA
There is almost nothing on Earth that has escaped human influence, from the oceans to the atmosphere. Few people realize that humans today are limited to macro bubbles. Our limited knowledge of today’s technology, coupled with limited knowledge of the world, and human limitations prevent us from seeing our true potential. In short, we are living our lives as people with bubbles, limiting our worldview to what we know, what we can prove, and what the “experts” say is possible. However, the bubble we are in is neither permanent nor unbreakable. For the past few centuries, we have been stretching the size and shape of our bubble, but even though it is much larger today, we still have a long way to go to see what is out there. So, does our bubble have an “outside”?
Nature has given every creature some form of protection for its survival, and every creature is also part of the “foodchain” found in the world, but man is sitting on top of it all. That is, a person has the ability to eat or use just about any other creature. Now man has come to realize this as his right. For this purpose, many animals are reared in cages for eating, consuming and using. From time immemorial, man has resorted to some kind of security tactic for his survival. With such hope, the use of weapons and defences began. At first, humans used such tactics to protect themselves from the wild, but today, most of the defences that are being set up between any two countries are done so to protect themselves and their propery from trespassers, thieves, gunmen and more. Locks, cameras and security systems are also installed to prevent thieves and enemies. For this purpose, governments, agencies, police, courts and a variety of rules and regulations have been built to bring order to the system. Governments, institutions, police, courts, and laws also receive criticism for controlling too much or overstepping their bounds. The world is constantly suffering so some can become rich and to make a profit. Any country has great advantages to escape from other countries, or become equipped with many deadly weapons. Along with the Army, Navy and additional troops, the Armed Forces are built. Fighter aircraft that fly at speeds of two and a half thousand kilometers per hour are now being built with the use of stealth technology. Nuclear ballistic missiles that can hit a target 10,000 kilometers or more away in 15-20 minutes can now detect more than one target.
The short answer is “yes.” In fact, the most exciting areas of the future will occur outside the current bubble. For this reason, I want to take a look to the other end of the bubble and how humanity stands to come out stronger after the current world crisis. The fear of the COVID-19 Coronavirus is increasing worldwide. If we look around today, people are uncertain of what the future holds and what we will look like several months down the road. Over the centuries, humanity has devised many tactics for looting, fooling, pursuing, exploiting, and subjugating others. Great schemes and advancements are created, and expert services are created to create or maintain economic, political, social, educational and religious ventures. COVID-19 has thrown many of these “traditional” ventures out the door, and left many of us standing outside our own “bubble” in our community or city. Technology has, in a very short time, left a mark on the landscape of the Earth in countless ways: diverting whole rivers, razing forests for farmland, and pumping enough gases into the atmosphere to alter the global climate. In the context of that history, what’s happening now isn’t all that unusual in human history. We’ve dealt with global pandemics before, via the Spanish Flu epidemic a century ago.
Humanity reached to the stars 50 years ago, and are now planning to set up bases on the moon. People are searching for probes and rovers left on Mars. Manmade spacecraft, such as Mariners 1 and 2 (which were launched in the 1970s), have exited the solar system today and entered the ‘inter-stellar’ area. These spacecraft, flying at speeds of over 35 thousand miles per hour, occasionally send out signals of ‘pings’ to confirm their continued operation, even after a half-century. The world’s largest cities have webs of highways, several kilometers-long bridges and underwater tunnels. Cities are filled with skyscrapers that defy imagination. There is a proposed plan to build a tower that stretches one kilometer high in these jungles of concrete. Mankind, which was dominant, effeminate and deadly by nature, has seemingly been stalled in its tracks by an enemy it can’t see. Yet,
mankind does not yet know anything about its creation, and cannot predict its end. We have been struggling to stop this tiny virus, and current efforts to produce a workable vaccine are weeks, if not months, off in the future. To some, such as scientists, the whole situation might look like a wall of sand collapsing on top of humanity. The question is – will humanity continue to live in a bubble after the threat of the Coronavirus is resolved?
