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Will society change after a pandemic?



Sooner or later, the pandemic will end, the world financial crisis will end, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution will end.

And the question will be - how has our life changed to this point?

Every major cataclysm in people's lives creates intense competition among large organizations, forcing them to look for new ways of development, whether it be companies or even states. World War II gave mankind rockets and opened the way to space. The arms race during the Cold War gave the world nuclear power and satellite communications, provoked the spread of new materials and the emergence of space technology in the lives of ordinary people such as Velcro and Teflon. After the financial crises of 1998 and 2008, the world learned about the Large Hadron Collider, smartphones, social networks, 3D printing and much more, which now seems familiar to us.

Definitely ahead of us, changes are waiting for us, and if we touch on the topic of changes in the life of society due to the pandemic, it would be more correct to talk more about the spread of existing technologies and practices that were not so popular among most people. It is unlikely that a whole series of previously unknown technologies or phenomena will appear, but the hyper-demand for online services, the practice of self-isolation and the beginning financial crisis, coinciding with the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, are forcing corporations and states to seek new advantages over competitors, and for the most part these are already existing initiatives or rare practices around the world.

All links in the text are not advertising in nature and were selected according to the principle "the more famous the resource, the greater the audience reach and the more it affects the opinion of the society."



Remote work as a common standard


If for it-specialists, remote work is a common occurrence, then for most people this has become a real event. Most employers saw both the opportunity to save on renting premises and the opportunity to hire employees for lower wages from other regions.

On a global scale, this can lead to such a mass phenomenon as virtual labor migration, when a worker can change the geography of work within literally an hour. At home, he is considered unemployed, but today he worked in Brussels, and tomorrow will be a full-time employee in Sydney.

Accordingly, a regular discussion of the geographical employment of citizens of a certain country may appear in the media; on a global scale, this looks like a logical calculation of the employment of the population, when, for example, 15% of Belarusians work from home in Russia, another 24% of Australians in Canada and 68% of residents India fall by the sum of small values.

Virtual labor migration can change the languages ​​of communication for the sake of lowering the language barrier, simultaneously creating previously unknown terms and can strengthen the borrowing of words from other languages.

This creates new challenges for states and companies, there is a regular need for such types of accounting as labor employment outside borders, the size of salaries by country, knowledge of a foreign language for work, the cost of renting hardware and software.



Offline Services Transformation


The fall in consumer demand and the closure of stores are forcing some companies to introduce vending machines to sell their products . And nothing prevents to develop this practice before placing pick-up points at each entrance.

The massive closure of retail space is quite capable of generating demand for VR (AR) technologies, as an analogue of a regular store. Trying on new clothes, turning the upcoming purchase in your hands, evaluating a new hairstyle or just participating in a pleasant commercial is quite attractive for those who do not practice frequent movements around the city, and most of them are now.

Suddenly quietly began the practice of telemedicine, although this does not look like beautiful pictures about the future, the therapist’s online consultations to assess the patient’s condition no longer look like something futuristic, but rather a necessary measure.



Media content as part of the home interior and home work interior


Self-isolation forced a large number of people to think about organizing a convenient workspace in their own home, which designers naturally did not fail to take advantage of . At the same time, constant background viewing of media content is able to give rise to such a phenomenon as the integration of media content in the home interior. If we recall the projectors and film televisions , this idea can be very viable for the development of the concept of a smart home, the demand for which has grown significantly in recent years. However, now no one bothers to put the monitor in a picture frame on the wall with broadcast streets in Venice .



Symbiosis of AI and human


Providers claim a surge in traffic during the epidemic, which means that data collection has increased, which can accelerate the improvement and dissemination of the AI ​​assistant. Since one of the frequent recommendations of freelancers is to “follow the regime”, the demand for such an assistant may turn out to be justified, which not only tells you what to do now, but also sets up the end of the working day for you in the virtual office and writes it down for the scheduled a television session with a doctor, as well as contacting emergency services on occasion. A smart bracelet may well get a new wave of popularity as a gadget for a personal digital ecosystem.



Courier boom


Despite the large influx of new employees, the volume of delivery orders cannot be fully covered . Most likely, this is a temporary phenomenon, but the widespread closure of retail space and the constant use of delivery can accustom society to the preference for the delivery of goods instead of walking in shopping centers, the death of which was foretold before the advent of COVID-19 . Increased data collection is able to show the regular needs of both a single person and entire areas. Definitely this will require a new form of logistics with a prediction of the needs of society.



The emergence of the technical elite and strange social trends


A lot has been written about the fourth industrial revolution, its main feature is the total automation of all possible areas of human society with a subsequent reduction in employment. It is also believed that a pandemic will accelerate the approach of the Fourth Industrial Revolution . However, there is very little discussion of what changes this will bring to society.

It can be assumed that automation will increase the requirements for the qualifications of employees, and this will provoke the division of society into a highly paid technical elite (not only IT), which will be constantly involved in self-training, and the remaining significant part of the society, which, for lack of qualifications and the ability to do simple work, is likely will engage in the development of social life with new strange trends, new subcultures and other humanitarian manifestations in society.



Decrease in the population of megacities


The development of automation, robotics, logistics, the expansion of communication coverage areas, the introduction of the Internet of things, remote work, as well as the advent of VR-trading, telemedicine suggests the optional life in megacities for work and comfortable existence. Life in a small quiet town or in nature seems to be an obvious solution, which should increase the outflow of people from megalopolises . This can be facilitated by a wave of migration of residents from megacities during the epidemic. Also, in several countries, investments in automated production have begun relatively recently in the complete absence of people; indirectly, this can also become an incentive for the outflow of population from cities.



Corporations and the global planned economy


Once in the distant 2011, Anatoly Wasserman claimed that computing power would allow the transition to a planned economy . You can disagree with him, but since then the computing power has only increased, as has the amount of data collected from each person. A pandemic lasts for months, a drop in sales, a halt in production and insane losses force firms to seek new ways of existence, just as self-isolation dictates to ordinary residents new living and earning conditions.

The fourth industrial revolution is also notable for the shortening of the production time, which makes it possible to respond more sensitively to the needs of the markets. However, due to their size and slowness, corporations are forced to plan for years to come, and losses due to reduced markets create the need for very accurate forecasting of the needs of the population in order to produce more adequate volumes of products and, as a result, reduce surplus stocks. The development of the Internet of things also allows you to track the life of consumables and prepare an adequate amount of goods for consumers in certain regions. The history of mankind suggests that if it is possible to increase competitiveness from innovations, then innovations will definitely be used.



Not everything is as good as it seems


Combining all of the above, a rainbow-like picture of the life of a layman who lives in a village or small town, uses a shaitan machine in the form of an all-knowing AI assistant, and to which the whole world is open at any second in the form of VR technology, can be formed. He managed to work in several countries, where he had never been. In his smart home there are live wallpapers that instantly adjust to the mood, the courier brings everything he needs to the vending machine at the doorstep of the house, and the man himself goes to the nearest cultural center on Fridays to discuss with the ticker bloggers a new fashion for sulfics.

In fact, the following problems are exacerbated:

  • the key issue is the energy supply of society and its effectiveness, including gadgets and mobile equipment;
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  • there is a need to create global services for monitoring the accuracy of information - digital passports, news, copyright protection, the need for everyday use of electronic signatures, etc.

How will our lives change by the time the incredible cocktail of the pandemic, the global crisis and the Fourth Industrial Revolution ends?

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