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I’m not getting all Heaven’s-Gatey when I suggest that the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) could have a catalytic effect on the transition to the exponential age. It throws into relief so many of the current issues of our modern geopolitical and economic arrangements.
The world was already a tense, wound-up place. Trust in institutions, especially government, was at historically low levels. Political discontent, which has many parents, was rising in richer and poorer nations. The questions about whether our governments work for us or for the few was being asked in different ways across the world.
This was coincident with (or perhaps exacerbated by) the accelerating effect of exponential technologies. Whole industries seem to be on the verge of being Blockbustered (or Netflixed?) as our industrial structures reconfigure aro…