New Week Same Humans #45
A new study reveals how the pandemic pushed us all through three Stages of Grief. This Harvard professor wants to prove aliens exist. Plus more news and analysis from this week.
Welcome to the mid-week update fromĀ New World Same Humans, a newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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š” In this weekās Sunday note I wrote about three glimpses of our world under global heating. Go here to read Three Climate Stories. š”
This week, an analysis of social media data reveals the impact of the pandemic on our collective psyche.
Meanwhile, there are signs that public opinion is turning decisively against Big Tech.
Also, a Harvard scientist is convinced that intelligent life is out there, and now he wants to prove it.
Letās go!
š· An emotional history of the pandemic
A new study published in the journal Nature offers a glimpse of the emotional journey weāve travelled together via the pandemic.
Researchers analysed 120 million pandemic-related tweets, all published between January and December 2020, for sentiment. They discovered that the US population passed through three distinct stages when it came to COVID. First came a refusal to accept that the pandemic was real, mixed with a fear of the unknown. Then, as lockdowns began and the death toll mounted, refusal morphed into anger. And finally, anger gave way to acceptance of a new reality.
Refusal-fear, anger, acceptance: thatās the collective journey. The researchers compared it to Elisabeth KĆ¼bler-Rossās famous stages of grief.
The study of collective psychology during pandemics isnāt new. The authors point out that their findings closely match the theory outlined by psychologist Philip Strong in his seminal 1990 essay Epidemic Psychology. Strong argued that any population living through a mass disease outbreak ā whether thatās the Black Death or the HIV epidemic ā passes through a set of distinct psychological stages including fear, moralisation, and action.
Social media, of course, has supercharged that journey. But the underlying structure appears to have remained stable.
ā” NWSHĀ Take: Last week I wrote about new research suggesting that people who seek tech-fuelled immortality tend to display Machiavellian psychological traits. Hereās another study that seeks a deeper understanding of our fundamental nature in the context of a changing world. // Search and social media data constitutes the richest window into the human soul ā our authentic hopes, desires, and fears ā ever assembled. Strange as it sounds, itās still a massively under-used resource when it comes to developing a deeper understanding of complex social phenomena such as our collective response to a pandemic. // The goal in sight here? Letās use the vast ocean of search and social data we have to enrich our understanding of human collective psychology, and then apply those findings to the next steps we take with emerging technologies. It will help us minimise unintended consequences, and build a future we want to live inside.
š All net
In the last instalment of New Week I wrote that the Tokyo Olympics, denuded of spectators, would become a showcase for Japanās robots.
What do I see this making headlines this week?
Thatās NWSH: robot basketball foresight you can depend on.
The robot is called CUE, and it was developed by Toyota. Japan is leaning hard into robotics as part of its āSociety 5.0ā plan for an economic and technological renaissance.
š§ļø A hard rain for Big Tech
A major new survey published this week finds that a majority of US citizens now want to see sweeping regulation of the Silicon Valley giants.
Pew Research surveyed 4,623 people and found that 68% believed Big Tech has too much power and influence, up from 47% in June 2020 and 51% in May 2018.
A slim majority were in favour of government action to limit the further growth of major technology companies.
A couple of weeks ago, the Federal Trade Commissionās antitrust lawsuit against Facebook was dismissed by a judge; that dismissal is now being appealed. Meanwhile, President Biden has just appointed lawyer and prominent tech critic Jonathan Kanter as the new antitrust chief at the Justice Department; itās being taken as yet another sign of Bidenās determination to tackle Big Tech.
ā” NWSHĀ Take: Itās the speed at which opinion is changing that should worry Facebook, Amazon, et al. // Then again, thereās what people say and thereās what they do. Amazon posted its first ever $100 billion quarter in Q4 2020; Q1 of this year saw sales of $108.5. Consumers are mainlining the platform as never before, and itās the same story with Facebook and Google. For how long, and to what extent, can people tolerate this disconnect between their opinion of big technology companies and their practical relationship with them? Thatās the key question. // Still, breaking up a company that billions are obsessed with is hard. It will mean all-our war between the state and the new socio-corporate powers headquartered in Silicon Valley. Zuck has no plans to slow down; he wants FB to own the metaverse. A hard rain is coming for Big Tech, but they donāt plan on getting wet.
šø Is anyone out there?
A team of Harvard scientists are set to lead a new project to search the cosmos for intelligent life.
Project Galileo will be led by Harvard astronomy professor Avi Loeb, and will scan the night sky for technosignatures: physical objects that suggest the presence of advanced civilisations.
Loeb made headlines when he claimed that the 100-metre asteroid known as Oumuamua, which passed through the solar system in 2017, was an alien object fuelled by light and on a long interstellar journey. Loeb said Oumuamua displayed behaviours that were otherwise impossible to explain; most of his colleagues remain sceptical.
ā” NWSHĀ Take: Where is everyone else? Project Galileo begins against the backdrop of a new and more focused search for Earth-like planets capable of supporting life. But stare into the night sky and all we see, still, is a strange and lifeless expanse. // There are many who believe that intelligent life must be out there somewhere. But Iām pretty persuaded by the thinking of those such as the English techno-philosopher James Lovelock, who argues that given the billions of years it takes to evolve human-level intelligence, itās likely that it evolved only once. // Itās at least possible, then, that we are the ones. As Iāve argued recently, before we surrender to the post-human era some futurists are keen to usher in, we should consider the implications of that.
šļø Also this week
šØ Alexa now has a male incarnation called Ziggy. Users who switch must use āZiggyā as the wake word; currently the feature is available only in the US, but Amazon say theyāll soon roll it out worldwide.
šµļø The neighbourhood watch app Citizen is paying people to livestream from crime scenes. That rhymes, and itās also creepy as hell.
šļø Athens has appointed a Chief Heat Officer to navigate the city through the climate crisis. Eleni Myrivili will be responsible for finding new ways to cool the city.
āæ Amazon has denied a story claiming it will soon start accepting bitcoin. A spokesperson said the company was āinterested in the spaceā but had no concrete plans.
š§āš» A major new survey saw one-third of respondents say theyāll quit their job if forced to go back to the office full-time. Ipsos surveyed 2,700 office workers across nine countries including the UK, Germany, India, China and Australia.
š A collective of climate scientists say the Earthās vital signs have hit an all-time low. Despite the pandemic, they say, levels of atmospheric CO2 and methane hit all-time highs in 2021.
š Lab-grown coral could save the worldās coral reefs. In a world first, scientists at the University of Miami cultivated starlet sea anemone and cauliflower coral in a lab.
š§ Brain-computer interface startup Synchron has been cleared to run an FDA trial of its technology. The startup has beaten Elon Muskās Neuralink to that staging post, and trials will start later this year.
š Humans of Earth
Key metrics to help you keep track of Project Human.
šĀ Global population:Ā 7,882,456,961
šĀ Earths currently needed:Ā 1.7893169467
šĀ Global population vaccinated:Ā 14.1%
šļøĀ 2021 progress bar:Ā 57% complete
šĀ On this day:Ā On 28 July 1896 the city of Miami, Florida, is incorporated.
Canāt shake the feeling
Thanks for reading this week.
Iām endlessly fascinated by the secrets of the human soul we might discover if we plumbed the depths of search and social data.
For longtime readers, that will come as no surprise. This newsletter is fuelled by the idea that to better understand what lies ahead, we need to cultivate a deeper understanding of ourselves.
Iāll keep pursuing that mission. And thereās one thing you can do to help: share!
If you found todayās instalment valuable, why not take a second to forward this email to one person ā a friend, relative, or colleague ā whoād also enjoy it? Or shareĀ New World Same HumansĀ across one of your social networks, and let others know why you think itās worth their time. Just hit the share button:
Iāll be back on Sunday. Until then, be well,
David.
P.S Huge thanks to Nikki Ritmeijer for the illustration at the top of this email. And to Monique van Dusseldorp for additional research and analysis.