Looking for Soothsayers

These are uncertain times – more uncertain than ever- enough to rattle any veteran with an attitude of ‘I have seen it all’. I have seen many presentations on the VUCA world, in fact I have used it myself in a couple presentations – mainly to cover-up when the forecasts have gone south.

So where is the problem? Why can we not accept the unknown? Why not accept there is black box which is still, let us say BLACK & DARK?

I am not trying to be philosophical here, but does science have a role in creating this impatience with the unknown?

A microscope which can see the bacteria came into existence only in 1930s*, before that looking for a cure for a Pandemic was more of a guessing game and shooting in the dark. However, the rapid progress made in areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biology has helped us understand natural phenomenon & solve mysteries

Today, when I speak to people – Engineers, Doctors and Businessmen, I hardly see any fear. What I see is frustration of not able get warp around the problem.

Engineers are ready to come up with all types of ventilators – just need a confirmation if that can solve the problem or is it the oxygen carrying capacity of blood which is being destroyed by the virus?

Just tell us transmission mechanisms and we will come up with Masks, Gloves & Sanitizing tunnels in no time.

Just give us R0 numbers and we are ready with Models, Simulations and Business scenarios and Dashboards

Not finding a full solution for a virus quickly is already frustrating us. There is evidence from Egyptian mummies of existence of smallpox, that was 3000 years ago. It killed 300-500 million people in 20th century itself and here we are trying to solve a pandemic in 120days flat. However, this unreasonable expectation is the real triumph of Science and Scientific thinking. It is science which is removing the fear of the unknown and bringing in the impatience not accept any Black Boxes

So, safe say to we don’t need any Soothsayers, we have Science and this is again another opportunity to prove its prowess.