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March 22, 2020
I like to play games.
When I am with my friends or family, I try to throw out some topics and try to have them debate opposite sides of an argument. I have bought a few card games that are “conversation starters “. You would be surprised at how people will respond to questions and situations what’s lurking inside their heads. I also try to pick the opposite side of an argument and play the devil’s advocate just to prolong the game. After all, isn’t this what Socrates is famous for? The Socratic method of thinking!
I thought of one such game today with this Corona virus issue going on.
Any disease is usually considered an affliction for the body but it comes with additional attacks on the minds and behaviors of individuals as well. Some diseases go another step further by attacking large populations of humans. Look at diseases like AIDS, cancer or leprosy that bring other social taboos to these diagnoses. The physical impact of all diseases can be equally horrible but the social impact can vary.
A “pandemic” is like the “big boss “at the end of a videogame. This virus is spreading relentlessly and within a few weeks it has closed borders, destroyed the economy, halted education and any other literary, intellectual or scientific activity. Those who started thinking of it as a “digital age hoax” instead of a real threat, including myself, are now becoming increasingly scared of it and a feeling of uncertainty ranging from considering it a brief fad versus impending doom that will wipe out a large portion of humanity.
About a hundred years ago, the influenza infected a third of the world’s population and killed millions. But I wonder if at that time people were truly as aware and scared of it unless if it reached their own town or vicinity. In today’s digital age, the emotional and scare-mongering aspect of the virus is billions of years ahead of what influenza did a hundred years ago. Corona has not yet killed a tiny fraction of the number of humans that influenza killed but due to the tremendous dissemination of information given the digital age, Corona has terrified more people than the early century influenza probably ever did.
From the physical aspect, humans are behaving very similarly as about a hundred years ago, that is, to wash hands, cover their mouths with veils or masks and limiting public gatherings. However one wonders if from the emotional aspect, humans are equally perturbed or even more.
That is what brings me to the game or fun aspect of this! Any time an event of such global magnitude happens, it becomes fertile ground for conspiracy theories. I have already heard people saying that the governments are hiding something and that there is some terrorist activity going on. Others are claiming that this was predicted by various authors and posting online excerpts from books with exact description of the current situation authored many years ago.
I thought it would be nice to go around the room, perhaps when we are all quarantined soon and ask everyone to come up with their own conspiracy theories behind the current situation. I know that our usual reaction is to listen to a conspiracy theory, be very skeptical about it and usually laugh it off but you will have to admit that each conspiracy theory leaves you with a faint eerie feeling of “what if this was true! “.
I thought of my own conspiracy theory too.
What if other species are actually smarter than we think? After all, we are the self-proclaimed superior species where we think that other species are so beneath us in intellect. What if the Corona virus is a very intelligent species or for that matter or even an alien species that is far more intelligent than as humans and these tiny little spheres with spikes are actually their transport vehicles. After planning this attack on humans for decades or whatever their reference of time is, they have finally traveled over the cosmic space and finally landed on earth with the “anchor” location of Wuhan, China. This species is attacking our existence and is spreading with unprecedented speed, wreaking havoc on our health, economy and all aspects of wellbeing.
But we are also humans after all. We are not a joke either. After all, we are the masters of the Universe, at least in our own calculations. Humans have conquered hundreds and thousands of other species on this earth and currently are at their peak of performance, by taking measures to fight the Corona. Borders are being closed, quarantines are being put into place and financial maneuvers are being implemented. Hands are being washed and masks are being worn.
Is this our new norm? Will the world shut down preemptively in the future with each new threat like this? Next time, it may not even appear odd to us and we would just mindlessly quarantine ourselves at our homes, close our businesses and retract from normal human life for as long as the threat is there. Perhaps new inventions will take place. I myself was thinking of working on making a pair of spectacles which will have microscopic capacity that would actually see the virus and try to kill it at sight.
There are many movies and books written about similar threats to humanity but I never realized that we would get to live through a fiction-flavored event like this in our own lifetime. This is of the magnitude of Noah splitting the river into two, Jesus being crucified, the mighty World Wars, the first step of man on Moon, the first flight and the invention of the wheel.
In our own lifetime we became the generation that saw the electronics take over the world and now we are witnessing a virus as a threat to our existence.
Most movies have a happy ending though. Inevitably, humans eventually overcome the threat. Humans win, amongst other reasons primarily because the movies are made by humans. And we are always winners in our own eyes. I guess that is the key to our own survival. This is also the key to suppressing and exploiting all other species. But what if in the current scenario, the virus wins? It makes the humans extinct. All other non-human species survive. These other species thank the Corona virus for defeating the human race that destroyed so many other species over centuries ever since the Earth existed. Finally the Earth moves towards prosperity, greenery and eternity because now it has been rid of the menace–the humans!
Wouldn’t that be a happy ending?
Not for the humans, but certainly for the Corona virus and all the other living speices of the Earth.
What’s your conspiracy theory?
