Disrupted
We are feeling the disruptive force of Covid-19 and its fallout. But will we want to hold onto BC, Before Coronavirus to make our world AD, After the Disease, what it once was?
Weβve heard a lot about βdisruptionβ over the last few years - companies upending, institutions and entrepreneurs revolutionising some of the things that we thought always were and always should be. Technology has been the poster child of these rapid social and economic changes. But disruption existed before Silicon Valley co-opted the word - it was change, that accelerated something, unexpected. It was something that exposed the cracks in our expectations and changed things, sometimes forever.
Two big thinkers, James Burke and Pico Iyer join Aleks to explore whether the pandemic provides the opportunity to think about how we can restructure our lives and our societies. Whether it gives us the chance to embrace disruption, and to reflect on what new ways of being are available to us on the other side. Is what is important to each of us becoming clear... if we choose to listen to it?
Produced by Kate Bissell and Mark Rickards
Last on
James Burke
James Burke is a science historian who is known for his work on the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ1 science series Tomorrowβs World, Connections and The Day the Universe Changed. Β As early as 1984, in a video that went viral decades later, Burke has been forecasting the future. Β In 1984 James appeared to predict the culture of confirmation bias that exists today. Β He said,Β βWe could operate on the basis that values and standards and ethics and facts and truths all depend on what your view of the world is. Β And that there may be as many views of that as there are people.β In our current timesΒ James predicts that we will not go back to normal after COVID- 19. He thinks we're experiencing a technological acceleration which will result in a 'new normal' and we will never go back to how we were before the pandemic.
Pico Iyer
Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer, known as Pico Iyer, is a British-born essayist and novelist, often known for his travel writing. He is the author of numerous books on crossing cultures including Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk and The Global Soul. Β He splits his time between Japan and California. Β He equates time more in terms of millennium rather thanΒ moments or events and Pico does not think our experience of COVID-19 will change society, but on an individual level it may change our perspective of what we want if we we have taken the time to be.Β Β
Picture: Bridget Lacombe
Broadcast
- Mon 25 May 2020 16:00ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
Podcast
-
![]()
The Digital Human
Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world
