How COVID19 Will Be a Paradigm Shift for Technology
about
3.3 million years ago man invented his
first set of tools
including hammers anvils wheels etc
fast forward about 2.3 million years
homo sapiens invented fire
now i won’t stand here and discuss every
invention mankind has made
but just for some perspective it took us
about 2.3 million years
to go from tools to fire comparatively
now in just
213 years we invented everything from
railroads to artificial intelligence in
1840 the u.s patent
office granted 458 patents in 2010
almost 220 000 patents were granted
when you see this rapid change happening
right before your eyes you can’t help
but wonder what will change
the world is so unpredictable that just
after i give this tedx talk
there could be an article or a study
published highlighting the new
breakthrough as the current pandemic
unfolds i see a multitude of prominent
demands in our society
first and foremost the access to our
workplace schools
labs have been severely restricted
however
at the same time the same access can be
granted virtually
this high demand of virtualization will
yield an acceleration
of collaboration and innovation to state
the obvious if it weren’t for computers
the internet streaming services and a
multitude of other things
we won’t be standing here right now but
as i’m
sure everyone has experienced in the
past couple of months
2d digital communication still has its
limitations
there are two main possible changes in
technology that will be spurred due to
the pandemic
a possible change we can see in the
future is virtual reality
this goes beyond your occasional video
game virtual reality
this type of virtual reality offers an
alternative to traditional
video calls and gives people the
opportunity to feel like they
are in the same workplace together
virtual reality isn’t just limited to
the workplace however
online charter schools can start
employing a similar strategy while
students are testing
so what is virtual reality and how can
it benefit us in the future
a lot of people are visual learners and
virtual reality goggles can train
students and staff to harness new skills
by providing them
real life scenarios instead of the
traditional textbook
microsoft recently released their second
virtual reality goggles
called the holo lens 2.
the lens is a combination of see-through
holographic
lenses multiple sensors includes
technology that understands
your gestures your voice and your
surrounding environment
the goggles visualize your surroundings
and give you a holographic image in your
eyes
this specific technology can be a threat
to our traditional smartphones
as we now will be able to fit an
augmented reality computer
in a standard pair of glasses bmw has
already incorporated this technology in
their bmw moderate
allowing the driver to wear an augmented
headset instead of a traditional helmet
the headset will be equipped with road
prediction technology and warning alert
systems
apart from virtual reality our future
will also consist
of many advances in the medical field
one prominent headline i notice in the
current media is the need
for a vaccine according to the cdc in
regular circumstances the creation of a
vaccine requires
six main stages the exploratory stage
the pre-clinical stage clinical
development stage
regulatory review and approval stage
manufacturing stage and last but not
least the quality control stage
the whole process can take up to 10
years and costs more than 150 million
dollars
so how are we using new technologies in
the medical field to accelerate it
well there are many experimental trials
currently taking place i would like to
highlight on two
the first being prophylactic messenger
rna vaccines
currently the inovio pharmaceuticals is
one company trying to develop vaccines
against the coronavirus to develop the
new vaccine
the rna of the virus is converted into
the dna
and then analyzed to find short sections
that will
generate the most immune response along
with inovio
moderna based in massachusetts aims to
create mrna vaccines
containing multiple mrna coatings of
different proteins
with that mimic the natural infection
the rapid discovery and the quick
manufacturing of the mrna vaccine
designed make it an effective platform
technology
a german company called curvac is also
utilizing
mrna technology to develop a vaccine
using nucleotide sequence libraries they
have the ability to
identify sequences for any vaccine
target
thus eliminating the need for a chemical
modification
pharmaceutical companies are also
employing molecular clamp technologies
to develop vaccines the coronavirus has
a spike protein
which binds to the human cells and
uncoils
blowing a hole in the cell wall that
lets
in that lets the virus in generally your
body recognizes the coiled shape of the
protein and then
kills it the logical approach to this
issue would be to make a vaccine
out of the spikes of the virus however
the spike protein will
uncoil in your body offering you zero
immunity
the new molecular clamp technology is
used to maintain the polypeptide
of experimental proteins molecular clamp
locks the protein in its coiled shape
encouraging your immune system to make
several anti-antibodies giving you a
much stronger immunity
this also eliminates a rising issue of a
mutant strain of the virus
with several antibodies your immune
system is more likely
to be able to fight off a different
strain of the virus as well
while both the rna messenger vaccines
the molecular clamp technology
seem promising we are from far from
having
the technology to completely eradicate
the virus as a whole
both of these new innovations will only
encourage the medical field to grow
at a time where hope seems hard to find
i urge you to take a look
at our future and think of the brilliant
new innovations
that are yet to come as i mentioned
throughout my
presentation we expect to see brand new
modifications
modifications in technology due to the
pandemic
virtual reality and vaccines are just
the beginning
i would like to conclude my ted talk
tedx talk by
hoping to encourage all of you to
connect create
and inspire thank you