The Biggest Experiment in History

The Coronavirus pandemic is forcing humanity into new ways of living and working, and giving us a glimpse of the future at an unprecedented scale

Never before has the world lived a crisis similar to today's Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic. While it is true that humanity faced deadlier challenges in the past, including wars, epidemics and famines, we never experienced one globally-impacting challenge directly and simultaneously affecting nations all around the globe and altering the fundamentals of how modern societies operate.

Some blamed certain nations, others blamed excessive resharing of information. The bottom line is these are just side effects of intense globalization. I recently asked my MBA students, who span many regions and sectors, how many were impacted by the travel restrictions. To my own surprise, over 60% were directly affected. We don't just share information; our businesses, means of production and overall supply chains are deeply intertwined that severe disruptions in one side of the world are undoubtedly going to impact the rest of us. Could globalization have been done differently to minimize the negative ripples? probably, and this is just one of the many experiments we are collectively going through now.

New ways of living

For decades, environmentalists have been advocating for alternative eco-friendlier economic and social models that can still be compatible with globalization. The idea that communicates can be designed as self-sufficient autopoietic systems, for instance through circular economy concepts, has been around for centuries, but it was usually linked to the Autarky or closed-economy model which misses many of the globalization benefits. One experiment ahead of us is whether we can sustain ourselves when it comes to the basic physical survival needs while leveraging technology to exchange as much value as possible virtually without the need for physical transportation.

Take Jordan, for instance. Given the government's limited resources, it was critical to take extreme protective measures to avoid a costly breakout of the Coronavirus. This included shutting down all services and leaving it to the government to provide sustenance such as cooking and heating gas and bread. The government's first experiment of distributing directly to neighbourhoods did not go well, with people gathering around distribution vans, defeating the purpose of enforcing social distancing. The government is now switching to another experiment iteration: re-opening small groceries for access by foot only i.e. no driving to shop will be allowed. Limiting transportation footprint is at the heart of the self-sustainable ecovillage concept.

New ways of working

Speaking of transportation footprint, another global experiment these days involves teleconferencing. The first transcontinental video call was demonstrated by AT&T back in 1964 using its Picturephone, with the first commercial service launched in 1970. 50 years later, and teleconferencing had barely crossed the chasm of the technology adoption lifecycle.

In less than two months, remote working and teleconferencing is the only way to work for most professionals and even politicians. I know several of my colleagues who do not like the idea of remote working and are trying to find their ways around it. Some would even go as far as renting a co-working space just to feel they are working from a real office, but this is all part of the experiment - we must all try it and then shape our view about it.

Teleconferencing has suddenly leapt forward to the most advanced phase of the technology adoption cycle, from enthusiasts and visionaries all the way skeptics; maybe not by choice, but who said it has to be?

New ways of learning

This global experiment is not limited to professionals and adults though. With quarantines and mobility restrictions being imposed by governments, children around the world are faced with new modes of learning and interaction that are very different from what they are used to in their schools, but probably ones that they can relate to stronger once they pass an initial phase of adaptation.

According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum "In many parts of the world, learning is confined to only those with direct access to physical school buildings, and quality is reserved for those who can afford to pay for learning outside of traditional public schools." The report also stressed the value of technology-enabled personalized learning experiences "Today’s children are growing up in a world of abundant choice and personalized experiences enabled by technology ... It is abundantly clear that personalization as a general concept is quickly becoming an expectation and a reality."

In fact, personalization of the learning journey is one of the key drivers for parents adopting homeschooling for their children. Other parents have opted for a hybrid approach in which home plays the central role in the learning experience with the schooling stepping back into a supportive role. One example of this hybrid model is Dubai's Rahhal, an experimental education initiative supported by select schools in the Emirate allowing enrolled students to attend a learning program in any of the participating schools for half of the week while giving them the freedom to shape their learning and extracurricular activities outside the school the rest of the week.

Though, until very recently, very few parents have actually made the shift toward such learning models. Only 3% of US school students are homeschooled, even though a 2017 study indicated the preference of 7% of parents to adopt this model.

However, with nearly 1.4 billion students being affected by the recent school and university closures globally, according to UNESCO, many countries have announced the switch to hybrid homeschooling away from school for the weeks or months to come. Similar to the teleconferencing example, this was yet another experience many parents would have never dared to try if given the choice. Watching my children's excitedly running a competition between Amazon's Alexa and Google Home on which is the most useful learning assistant, and voluntarily taking additional classes on Khan Academy after responding online to their teachers' assignments, tell me this is definitely an experiment worth trying. We are just scratching the surface of what the future of education looks like.

New ways of thinking

The experiment that probably excites me the most is the basic income. While the idea of paying every citizen a guaranteed monthly or annual income, regardless of their wealth or employment status, existed as early as the 16th century when it was concretely described by Thomas More in his book Utopia "... It would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood so that nobody's under the frightful necessity of becoming first a thief and then a corpse."

Basic income, however, did not gain much interest except in socioeconomic research and a limited number of recent pilots, mostly in Europe and Africa, with few hundreds or thousands of participants in each. The one that captured the world's attention the most was Finland's 2017-2018 basic income pilot involving 2,000 randomly selected jobless citizens who could keep their basic income even if they were to find a job during the two-year pilot.

Not long later and we are now witnessing serious discussions in the US about paying all families cheques to deal with the Coronavirus situation. Several parliamentarians in the UK have also called for an emergency universal basic income. While none of these proposals has materialized yet, and while some of them might not necessarily reflect every aspect of a model basic income, it is very interesting to see strong voices coming in particular from a US administration with no strong history of supporting state-sponsored welfare programs. The progressive idea that income can be detached from the need to work, at least as a direct pre-requisite, is going to be increasingly more relevant as automation and artificial intelligence continue to master new types of jobs. This and similar ideas will be at the core of defining our role and purpose as humanity in the decades and centuries to come.

This is just the beginning

We all cannot wait for the Coronavirus crisis to finally be over, and this experiment, just like any other, will eventually come to an end. And when it happens, we would have been exposed to very different ways of living, working, learning and thinking. Most of us will probably roll back to the good old ways of doing things, but some will embrace the change or at least part of it, and build on it, and we can expect more and more advocates calling to adopt some of these experiments as the new norm. They might not all work out exactly as hoped for by their advocates, but one thing I know for sure is that the world will never be the same again.

The key takeaway is: this experiment was forced upon us but, despite all the tragedies, we were shown a glimpse of a potential future. It is now up to us to learn from the experiment and rearrange the building blocks of our economies and societies to shape the future that we want.

Disclaimer: This article was published in the author's personal capacity. The opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, or other group or individual.