Re: <nettime> Andrew Sheng: "Plan for system-wide shock waves"

[sivasubramanian muthusamy <6.internet@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 1:56 PM Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>
wrote:


> Since the early 2000s, Hong Kong economist Andrew Sheng has offered
> the most insightful commentary on Chinese political economy that
> I've been able to find. In this interview he describes the new
> global condition of cascading system-wide shocks, or what Ian Goldin
> calls "systemic risks" (the key concept of The Butterfly Defect,
> now hailed as a prophetic book). Still more importantly, Sheng
> points out how the Chinese leadership is likely to use big data
> and AI analytics in order to analyze and plan for the knock-on
> consequences of major sectoral shocks, as they reverberate both
> within the national frame and throughout the interconnected world.

> Such developments could be the most crucial innovations to arise
> from the current crisis. Like anyone with a brain, Sheng stresses
> the need for international cooperation to prevent, or recover from,
> the most destructive consequences. For him, "the COVID-19 outbreak
> is perhaps the biggest wake-up call in history."


COVID-19 is a global epidemic that is destructive and painful, but
post-COVID the tempo of International cooperation and togetherness
could be perpetuated a little longer, post-COVID to cause major
positive global changes to happen, while resolving global issues that
seemed impossible to solve for millennia. When hotels reopen, when
airplanes start flying, when factories reopen, would the economy be
merely recovering or renewed and invigorated? Will we have a better
experience while flying and while booking / cancelling a hotel room?
Will there be greater goodness in the world? What could we do when we
are at home with ample time in our hands? Is there something that we
could do by debating and collaborating to blueprint changes?

Not just governments. Governments together with the most brilliant
economists, recognized and unknown, together with social scientists,
and great thinkers across subject areas from around the world...


> The weird thing is the feeling of deja-vu that creeps over you while
> reading this. Just yesterday, North and South American, European,
> African and Asian officials coordinated through global bodies such
> as WHO to analyze, manage and quell epidemic outbreaks such as SARS
> or Ebola. True, they did nothing to stem the continuous production
> of such risks through wildly accelerated globalization. But neither
> did they abandon international institutions, wantonly destroy
> vital government services, publicly scorn scientific expertise
> or propagate conspiracy theories through their Twitter accounts.
> The US Republicans and the British Brexiteers are obviously the
> super-spreaders of that pandemic. Yet in face of it, like any other
> massive contagion, we all have to think a little more about our own
> roles in maintaining public health. Do you too feel sharp pains in
> the chest when an authoritarian state starts looking more competent
> than former democracies? Try a little dose of Andrew Sheng - it
> might be good for everyone. - BH
>

There could also be a recognition that the key to innovation is
collaboration. Not just between Governments and Government agencies,
but across the Internet, across Governments, Society, Economy,
Academia and profit and non-profit organizations and individuals who
can generate new ideas.

Sivasubramanian M



> ****
>
> An interview with Andrew Sheng
>
> This week, Project Syndicate catches up with Andrew
> Sheng, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Securities
> and Futures Commission and Distinguished Fellow of the
> Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong.
> (https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/ps-say-more-andrew-sheng)



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