Charles Stross on our inner representation of Covid-19:
COVID19 infects human (and a few other mammalian species—mink, deer) cells: it doesn't recognize or directly interact with the superorganisms made of those cells.
By antropomorphising it and acting defiantly through mask or vaccination refusal, there's a will to be defiant in the face of some imaginary, sentient, enemy rather than the faceless, emotionless, little spiky blob it is.
People construct supernatural explanations for observed phenomena, and COVID19 is an observable phenomenon, so we get propitiatory or defiant/adversarial responses, not rational ones.
A quite technical but fascinating look into how the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA vaccine is built and works.
Great visual explanation of Covid-19 aerosol transmission pathways and the importance of protection and ventilation.
I've been surprised at how little the possibility of Covid-19 aerosol transmission features in official rules or discussion despite more and more published proof. I can't tell if they know something I don't, they're deliberately ignoring the data because it would mean painfully strict rules or they simply aren't aware.
Whatever the case, Kottke points to what seems to be a clear case of aerosol transmission in a spinning studio where all official hygiene and distancing rules were followed.
Interesting take on (Silicon Valley) privilege versus exposure to the current Covid-19 pandemic.
They’re simply succumbing to one of the dominant ethos of the digital age, which is to design one’s personal reality so meticulously that existential threats are simply removed from the equation. The leap from a Fitbit tracking your heart rate to an annual full-body cancer scan or from a doorbell surveillance camera to a network of autonomous robot sentries is really just a matter of money. No matter the level of existential security, the Netflix shows we stream are the same.
I've certainly thought about this myself as we sit comfortably at home while delivery drivers and shop staff risk exposure to supply us with anything we need.
I'm not always a fan of Tim O'Reilly's views from the Silicon Valley bubble. Even so, his article on the "post-covid future" is worth putting some time aside for.
So, when you read stories—and there are many—speculating or predicting when and how we will return to “normal”, discount them heavily. The future will not be like the past. The comfortable Victorian and Georgian world complete with grand country houses, a globe-spanning British empire, and lords and commoners each knowing their place, was swept away by the events that began in the summer of 1914 (and that with Britain on the “winning” side of both world wars.) So too, our comfortable “American century” of conspicuous consumer consumption, global tourism, and ever-increasing stock and home prices may be gone forever.