In this fast changing and overwhelming pandemic crisis, what is really going on, and what should individuals and governments do?
Daniel Schmachtenberger’s interests have to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal. He has been tracking this virus since its early outbreak in China and for the last few weeks has been working on supporting coordinated response strategies, interfacing with major institutional and private sector actors.
In this situational assessment, he outlines some of the misconceptions about the virus, some likely trajectories for the US and the rest of the world, and lays out some concrete proposals for avoiding disaster.
Daniel’s recent post on Facebook outlined issues with misinformation and the information ecology during the pandemic: https://www.facebook.com/notes/daniel-schmachtenberger/mind-viruses-during-a-pandemic/10156663879545213/
Useful analysis for understanding the pandemic are the articles by Tomas Pueyo:
Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56
Daniel’s full bio:
“Daniel is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue.
The throughline of his interests has to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal.
Towards these ends, he’s had particular interest in the topics of catastrophic and existential risk, civilization and institutional decay and collapse as well as progress, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science.
Motivated by the belief that advancing collective intelligence and capacity is foundational to the integrity of any civilization, and necessary to address the unique risks we currently face given the intersection of globalization and exponential technology, he has spoken publicly on many of these topics, hoping to popularize and deepen important conversations and engage more people in working towards their solutions. Many of these can be found here.”