Will We Social Distance Forever?

Yes, we will social distance forever (which will make making babies a bigger chore than it already is).

I predict long distance relationships to become the norm. Safe sex will be taken to a new level, it will now be phone and virtual reality sex, and done through instant messenger and through PA PMs -- so no change there. The very adventurous and fearless will do it in Hazmat suits. Babies will be grown in isolated bubbles for those that can afford it. Most will just have Tamagotchi babies. No more pubs. People will drink themselves to death alone. Sports events will be done in solitary circumstances on one's game system of choice. I predict that in the future instead of live concerts in front of an audience, those concerts will be beamed into your home as "Pay-TV" events. Cinemas, aka movie theatres, will be a thing of the past except for those who can afford to build their own private ones. Others will watch "movies" on their own private videoscreens. Every employee that can't work from home will be given their own private office building in the arctic tundra and other remote places to maintain isolation. Other work will be done by robots with the latest anti-virus updates, but even they will try to socially distance themselves as much as possible.. Disinfected food and other consumer goods will be ordered on-line and delivered by disinfected drones. War will be done all remotely at the push of a button. Holidays will be taken in total isolation and will take place in total seclusion in the comfort of your own dwelling. Shaking hands will be a thing of the past, we shall now bow to each other on our vid phones or while using binoculars and gazing out of our protective window barrier shields. The future is very much alone.

Seriously, I think social distancing and less physical contact will be the norm for many of us for some time, and even after people will likely be more careful with social contact. I was already like that anyway, so it's not as big a change for me as with some others.

Edited by Logan - April 01 2020 at 17:06

funny..or not.. but perhaps social distancing may or may not be the new normal.. but the world around us will change I (and others suspect) after Convid has passed.  One could well be something that right wingers have been salivitating about..  A real about face from the decades long march towards globalism. Economic and social. For all that Trump, Brexisteers and the right wing neo facisists out there have tried to do.. pander to fear and a changing world ..the virus may do for them.  A real case for it they can make upon real fear. We got lucky with SARS.. not so much so with Covid.. but there will the next one.. and god help us if it combine the worst of both.

Edited by micky - April 01 2020 at 20:09

micky wrote: funny..or not.. but perhaps social distancing may or may not be the new normal.. but the world around us will change I (and others suspect) after Convid has passed.  One could well be something that right wingers have been salivitating about..  A real about face from the decades long march towards globalism. Economic and social. For all that Trump, Brexisteers and the right wing neo facisists out there have tried to do.. pander to fear and a changing world ..the virus may do for them.  A real case for it they can make upon real fear. We got lucky with SARS.. not so much so with Covid.. but there will the next one.. and god help us if it combine the worst of both.

I've been social distancing for years. Most people suck.

I hope so. One thing that irritates the crap out if me is people with no regard for personal space.

How does the saying go? Every dark cloud has a silver lining?

I don't believe many of us had genuinely meaningful and reciprocal human interaction prior to the pandemic, so this will just make things worse

Lewian wrote: Logan wrote: Yes, we will social distance forever (which will make making babies a bigger chore than it already is).   Good for the planet then, we're far too many currently.

Sorry for not quoting, Captcha issues, and I'd then want to snip posts more than I'd be comfortable with (hopefully people actually take the time to read through the threads -- I tend to like to read them in linear fashion).

While my "Yes, we will social distance forever (which will make making babies a bigger chore than it already is). I predict long distance relationships to become the norm. Safe sex will be taken to a new level, it will now be phone and virtual reality sex, and done through instant messenger and through PA PMs -- so no change there. The very adventurous and fearless will do it in Hazmat suits. Babies will be grown in isolated bubbles for those that can afford it. Most will just have Tamagotchi babies..." et cetera, was hoping to get a smile (I rarely do that I know of, so I should stop trying, or trying too hard perhaps), I actually did in part have a film called Z.P.G. (Zero Population Growth) in mind, where due to extreme pollution and environmental degradation, it was made illegal to have children for one generation (I don't remember exactly how many years) and mothers were sort of given comfort baby dolls to soother them. Failure to comply resulted in the execution of the baby-makers and the child. The premise of the TV show in my avatar was that the world is overpopulated, this is dooming the planet, and drastic means are necessary to bring the numbers down. It is an unpopular opinion, but I also think that there are too many people on the planet, it's been growing uncontrollably, and something should be done about that. I've never been comfortable with abortion, and have been told I have no say in that, but I would like to see more birth control around the world, but I still rather would like to encourage the smartest to have children.

There's a fun comedy film called Idiocracy where the premise is that the more thoughtful and professional people who plan end up having very few children, whereas the stupid end up having lots of children, which results in a dumbing down of the population. Of course there are a world of problems,abuse of power, and ethical issues there, and so I'm not saying that I support a eugenics/ selective breeding campaign even though I would like the species to improve itself (perhaps with gene editing it will, and it's hardly all about smarts). One could write ten thousand pages on that topic easily and still not cover enough ground to look at all the potential implications.

I do think this planet could do with far less people, we're exploiting the planet, and we consume far too much. I haven't gone so far as to become an anti-natalist though, and am not nearly as misanthropic as some people I know.

I am rather hoping with COVID-19 that this might trigger some sort of change in many people, but then the dangers of climate change don;t seem to have changed the behaviours/ habits of people as much as I would have expected

Edited by Logan - April 02 2020 at 09:06