New Orleans There are signs the holiday season is upon us even for us working dogs. The email inbox seems contained, rather than bursting at the seams. People are disappearing from some of the chains and invisible on some of the Zooms. More folks are saying, “hey, let’s do this after the holidays.” I’m not even sure that most of Europe is still open for business. We almost feel like we can relax. Sure, we always have some niggling concerns, like why is it so hard to hire organizers in the Netherlands, or what does in take to get everyone on the same page to make the FCC’s timeshare deadlines in Antioch, Worcester, or Rockford? There’s never a way to completely turn the mind off, as hard as many of us try.
Reading through the big end-of-the-year issue of the Economist offered a refreshing perspective for all of us who are constantly working our personal worry beads. In a section called “Wild Cards,” they spit balled some big-time things that could happen in the coming year or years, if we wanted to compare our trivial concerns with some big time possible prospects that could be world changing.
Take solar storms for one. Hey, it’s happened before. In 1989, they knocked Quebec offline for nine hours. In 2022, they zapped out 38 satellites. A so-called Carrington event in 1859 disrupted telegraphs across Europe and America. Physicists say the odds in the 2020s are 10%. Ok, you like those odds, do you? How about another pandemic? The WHO in 2024 lists 30 different pathogens that could trigger another one. The thing about pandemics that is really worth the worry is that there can be local and regional, even when they are aren’t big-league global like Covid-19. Staying in denial is not exactly the best antidote for the old “what me worry” attitude.
Admittedly, some of the rest of the Economist’s worry warts are a little zanier and less worth the permanent wrinkles on your forehead. Some in fact don’t even seem that bad or are in a different category, because they are already happening. Having a 4G network on the moon so rovers and astronauts can communicate or call home like ET, doesn’t really sound bad to me. Having sport tournaments that encourage doping on the other end of the scale seems kind of like something that is already de facto happening. I think I can also handle the discovery of some lost text from antiquity. In fact, that sounds kind of exciting. We keep finding more human ancestors on an annual basis it seems, as well, and, frankly, I’m OK with that, and am pretty much “attaboy” rather than “oh my god.”
Now, Russia deploying a nuclear weapon in space is in a whole different category. Supposedly, they are already developing this capacity to knock out satellites. Face it, this is one of those, what can you do but shrug, who can figure what Russia might do next? Hope in this situation, becomes a plan. Then there are some natural events like huge earthquakes that block the sun and shifts in the North Atlantic current that are simply world changes for everyone. Earthquakes are past our control, and, tragically, dealing with the climate changes that could melt the poles and change currents are not worth worry, but demand real and immediate work.
Lastly, the Economist mentions that a big wild card would be the actual detection of alien life. I listened to The Secret Life of the Universe, earlier this year and, surprisingly, found myself convinced that such a discovery is virtually inevitable, because the probability is almost 100% mathematically.
There’s something comforting about coming to grips with something that’s not worth the worry, because it’s past our little piddling ability to change or impact. In fact, I’ve found over my career that that recognition is vital in protecting against ulcers and continuing to put your shoulder to the wheel. As wild as the possibilities might be, we can only really worry about the things we can really impact and control. Coming to that place makes it easy to enjoy the holidays and a chance to think and do something different.