#hyperconnectivity

Now more than ever we can witness first-hand how global and linked information has become. With the ongoing spread of the Corona Virus we are witnessing this phenomenon where the sum of people, objects, places, has become the essence of modern times. From here we can see information moving and influencing in real-time those who are connected on the web without geo-limitations.

This virus has infected thousands of people from China to Europe while slowly creeping  into North America. The pattern indicates the travel flow of people and goods being shipped from Asia, with China in the middle of a vast web of commercial routes across the globe. Now this COVID-19 disease has followed this very same pattern as airline destinations have become further apart, meaning passengers can directly arrive to places where before a stopover was needed.

From China to Europe through Iran, the Silk Road is still relevant today more than ever.

This translates into a faster spread of any disease as we grew more dependent from Asian markets to sustain western economies. COVID-19 is now affecting people’s lives and marketplaces on a global scale; something SARS failed to do back in 2003 because China wasn’t as influential as it today, but also because air routes were fewer and more limited than they are now. One important datum is the spread in Iran and neighboring countries, where from east to west the virus followed the ancient Silk Road to Europe.

Each day during these events dictated by the Corona Virus the movement of information and its influence can be directly seen. Beyond the traditional information medium there’s a whole realm of social platforms, where true and false data quickly spread to millions of users. We will see the law affecting our lives furthermore, governments will apply a soft and direct censorship in the near future to prevent the spread of false news; however, this will also impact the rest and content creators will have to deal with it on their own terms.

The relationship creates important data useful to understand behavior.

In terms of hyperconnectivity we can reference the virus map and see the network of data on a global scale. People are connected to objects and object to places. A person is sharing content through a smartphone that at the same time is providing geo-data to determine location. The sum of these three elements creates behaviors to explore and to exploit. Explore because we can refine information and use it to understand how people move, this can grant to act with better tools should the next endemic disease happen. Exploit because fear can be worked to push masses towards one direction instead of another, so we can predict shady uses of people’s reactions to affect events like government elections, markets, and the public opinion.

Augmented reality can display data in 3d providing more accurate predictions and visualization methods.

Through Internet Of Things (IOT) we have a large network of people, objects, places, and it is the next frontier of human and technological studies. Phones connected to tablets, sensors connected to computers, thermostats connected to smartphones, traffic lights connected to cars, and so on. Artificial  intelligece can now extrapolate behevioral models to predict the future with more accuracy; therefore data can now indicate 3d models providing unprecedented levels of details. Imagine this technology becoming an essential tool to understand diseases’ patterns of their spreading, it would help contain and minimize fatalities reducing damages to this economy that today knows no boundaries.