Update 1: October 17, 2019
Theme of the week:
Germs may spread diseases, but diseases spread fear. In the long run, fear is as big a threat as disease.
State of the Threat at the End of Week 1:
It’s been a tough week. The World Health Organization and ReDS Relief announced a “voluntary” ban (we’ll see how voluntary it will be) on assemblies of more than 12 people in order to reduce the spread of illness. Possibly as a result, there’s even more fear, suspicion, and hostility toward ReDS sufferers and those at high risk of infection. This was most graphically demonstrated by the tragic bombing of a ReDS hospice facility in Birmingham, England, which resulted in the deaths of 75 people.
The elderly are suffering, too. Competition for scarce medical resources has left some of the people in eldercare in such crowded conditions that it amounts to an “ eldercare lockdown.” The young aren’t immune from fear, either, as parents struggle to explain their diminishing chances for a full life. And those with chronic diseases find that supplies and medications for treatment are scarce.
There have been some strange responses to the disease threat. Some are called for humanity’s “ voluntary extinction.” Other apocalyptic cults are even trying to spread ReDS to bring on the end times. Profiteers and black-marketers are distributing useless “ReDS protection” gear. That actually spreads the disease, as people forego the few useful products (like “ ReDSProt3ct”) and then travel or engage in other unsafe behaviors.
People Respond
But people are fighting back against fear and disease, too. People are talking through their anxieties, and several superstructures have been formed to tell people the truth about ReDS. We have ReDS Media Network, for example, and Public Health Information - both of which bring artists and medical experts together to educate the public. Positive Influence does similar things, but comes from a more radical agenda and fights for the rights and autonomy of ReDS sufferers (self-named "Positives") and those at increased risk.
Ad hoc groups are gathering the latest in ReDS research. People are brainstorming education alternatives now that the large gatherings we used to call schools are unsafe. The Catholic Church is reprising the role it played in the 14th century during the Black Death, mobilizing its physical and human resources on behalf of disease victims, while other groups are advocating an extremist exploration of theological-based purity of body and mind.
People are taking on the tough questions, too, debating the role of people’s individual freedoms when anybody could bring disease and death to others. The Distributed Workforce Network, based loosely on Chairman Mao’s “backyard forges’ movement, is helping larger companies spread their workforces out using a barter system. People are organizing to fight the terrorist apocalypse cults, and figuring out how to act as a community when ReDS strikes close to home.
Additionally, the arts community has mobilized in the face of upheaval and social change. A movement to revitalize local museum visitation hopes to encourage a whole new generation of children to gather in these public spaces and find new methods of sharing and enjoying their contents. Global arts collective ARK (Art Replacing Knowledge) places emphasis on the social value of art as a solution to social issues, and alongside their efforts to create a Repository that stores and protects artwork, is building visual models of our world today based upon works on the Superstruct site. And the art exhibit Seeing ReDS strives to bring works created in response to the Quarantine superthreat into the public view by requesting submissions by SEHIs, and encouraging community interaction through real-world exhibitions.
Tech Goes to War … Against ReDS
Tech is going to work on the problem, too. PANDA – the Pandemic Surveillance System – is attempting to use mobile computing to track health conditions. The “World of Starcraft” gaming community has organized a ReDS response effort, transforming in-game earnings into real-life donations to benefit patients. ReDSNet takes a page from the distributed computing projects of the last decade, like SETI, and uses the processing power of people’s private equipment to search for cures. The Whole Superstruct Catalog offers a variety of health solutions online.
Others suggest the evolution of personal communications devices such as cell phones can help with disease tracking, or could serve as recommendation-based, trust-sensing tools, while others encourage a return to more traditional methods, such as mosquito nets, to help with the spread of ReDS in tropical and subtropical regions.
These efforts can go wrong, too. When people confront this shortage of medical resources by hacking medical devices from household appliances and performing home surgery – well, things have gone too far.
What do we do now?
As we enter Week 2 of the Quarantine scenario, here are some suggestions from us as your guides:
More tech hacks! The ReDSNet and other ideas are up against a terrible challenge, since griefers can trash anything online. But anything that might work around that, and any hardtech hacks (as opposed to data backs) are welcome. Example: How could we use common household devices in ways that WOULDN’T be dangerous?
More social hacks! The more that people can form new social structures that keep social groups small and bypass our broken economy and government infrastructure, the better.
More hope and inspiration! These are tough times. Help your fellow humans keep their spirits up, their creative juices flowing, and their thoughts positive. Positive thinking saves lives.
More “longbroading”! Make unusual connections – between unexpected groups of people, unexpected pairings of ideas … whatever. That’s where new ideas come from. And it’s fun.
See you next week.
RJ Eskow, lehall, 17 October 2019
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