March 27, 2020, Turkey

47.823 tests, 5.698 active ,42 recovered, 92 died.

Who is gonna save us right now? Technology? But we should be careful about it.

Think simple: Where did we use technology in our lives until the plague?

Until the plague, most of us were opposed to robots, but now we all want them! Yet, we should be aware that they are already in our lives. Think of IoT which enables to make coffee with just one click, smart watches to check your health with the capacity of understanding even your emotions in the future, smartphones with facial and fingerprint recognition, online education, video meetings…

Where we want to use technology right now? Health, Finance, Education…

We want technology, therefore programming, apps, robots whatever you say, to know if there is someone diagnosed with Coronavirus near us, or to provide medical help in diagnosing and tracking ourselves, our loved ones, sending medicine with drones; also in education, we want tech to help us more in distance learning; in banking, paying bills, transferring money which we have already started using, at work for meetings…

You see that tech is already in our lives but I think the problem is about our perception. It is not easy but we will get used to the process. We used to think that robots were unnecessary while have people to talk, work, cook etc. We mostly focused on maximizing the manufacturing. But now we don’t want people to work at call centers and require chatbots, we don’t want people to cook for us as we don’t trust… Also we realized that we don’t always have to go to work or some repeated works actually can be done by programming. Now we can’t go our elderly ones and care for them and we need sterilized robots for them. It is as if we are going through an apocalypse.

Here are some news to prove that the tech-process is accelerated.

In an article, it is stated that “Japanese government wants to increase acceptance of technology that could help fill the gap in the nursing workforce” . The government makes effort to use robotic wheelchairs, sensor and network technologies which give people freedom of movement in a certain place and also watching over patients and communicating them with AI, carrying them food, drinks, medicine etc. You can find more detailed information in Japan’s Robot Strategy Report. Sterilization stations are also being worked on.

We already know that China does not allow its citizens to use some chats, apps but only their own. So, people are easy to track and apps are monitored , I suppose that fake news on Covid-19 could be detected easily.

China uses “Close Contact App” to warn citizens against people diagnosed with Coronavirus.

Alibaba’s International Medical Expert Communication Center which is said to have affected the control of the virus positively by enabling Chinese medical experts to tell about their experiences and work remotely. The app can now be used by medical staff around the world to get in contact, share experiences and especially to act as one. All functions to make everything easier are provided: real-time multi-language translation, remote video conferencing and more.

Also, police in China have been using glasses with facial recognition technology for some time and this technology could also be adjusted to their needs.

How we wanted to live? Independent, wherever we like

How do we want to live right now? Staying at a certain distance away from each other, caring for ourselves and others, cleaner, healthier, using our time better… Remember that we were also opposed to live in a closed society but now we want to be at home, we want government to strict us, we want to return home if we are away.

Now, technology is not our enemy but a solution. And we are focusing on how to use it efficiently in this time of plague. This solution makes us gain time against the virus. It is an alternative to medicine in a way. We need more start-ups using technology for the good of us and of course funding from governments.

Roles switched

Countries are one

Families are one

Threat is the same

The cure is needed by anybody

People want governments to declare a state of emergency and restrictions

People want more robots in their lives

People willingly give their data

Here is the question: Can technology and all the data given/received be our enemy when the plague ends?

We are now willing to to give our data to stay healthy, to make life easier. But is there any privacy act between governments? All our digital fingerprints are very valuable and we should be careful in this issue.

But how?

We can be careful while creating patterns which allows AI to guess better.

We should read more about digital progress all around the world.

We need to search, find, read, analyze and share for better.

Stay home, stay healthy, read more:

Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus

Panorama Soruyor: Küresel salgın sonrasında yeni bir dünya düzeni bekleniyor mu?