EDITOR’S NOTE: As the internet becomes our economic, educational and social window to the world, six innovators that built this critical technology give their thoughts on our post-pandemic future. These visionaries are part of the Marconi Society, a foundation that inspires and connects those creating new technology for a digitally inclusive world.
I hope that governments will realize that COVID-19 is a harbinger of biological warfare. To date, biowarfare has been inhibited by concern for exactly what is happening now: rapid unpredictable spread that might infect the launchers of the disease. The time for that view is over. The cost of bioengineering is declining. Groups who feel no responsibility for the welfare of large populations will be able to start experimenting. There will be a big window of vulnerability during which it will be easier to develop new pathogens than to develop cures or immunizations.
Society can be less vulnerable if the flows of possible pathogens are measured, analyzed and controlled. Airflows need to be changed to make contagion less likely. For suspected COVID-19 cases, the University of Chicago Medical Center is using isolation rooms with special airflow designed to keep germs from getting into other rooms. This sort of idea is likely possible in public areas.
Protective gear, like masks, needs to be made more effective, more comfortable, more socially acceptable, and cheaper.
Network-connected thermometers predicted the spread of the flu in the United States two weeks before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own surveillance tool did. Perhaps Nest thermostats may be useful in detecting illness. What can we infer if many people turn the temperature up or down?
Our rules for vaccine development center on conventional metrics: customer satisfaction and big-pharma profits. At some point we are going to decide that something is better than nothing and that taking some risk may often be worth it.
Whitfield Diffie co-invented public-key cryptography, which is used to protect privacy on the internet, assure the integrity of digital content and enable fundamental security off and online.
