Editor's Preface Hong Kong Turmoil Has Wealthy Eyeing Other Havens ... The United Kingdom would offer a path to citizenship for eligible Hong Kong residents and condemned China's new security law as a threat to the city's freedom. There is a clear and serious violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which laid the groundwork for the city's handover from British to China in 1997 and stated that Hong Kong's existing system of government would remain in place for 50 years. China's central government on Tuesday night -- the 23rd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from British rule to China -- imposed a sweeping national security law that critics say has stripped the city of its autonomy and precious civil and social freedoms, and cements Beijing's authoritarian rule over the territory. Insecurity and the political context of the moment, the cost of living too high, Hong Kong is one of the most expensive in the world and it is the right place to invest, not necessarily the best place to live. In addition, the unemployment rate is exploding in Hong Kong due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. According to data collected by the International Air Transport Association, most of these expats and Hong Kong residents on departure would like to stay in Asia. Their three favorite destinations would be Japan, Singapore and South Korea. European countries follow and dominate the top 20 preferred destinations, ahead of the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. The islands also the Caribbean, Malta and even Cyprus. Pandemic : We need prudent global governance and collective superintelligence It makes sense to see our species as a single biological system – and obviously. Globally connected, no country is safe from a pandemic. Without some kind of global governance or collective superintelligence were all nations have a say, humanity will pay an enormous price. In a similar way, our species as a whole is exposed to Covid-19. We can only protect our own individual nations if we manage to protect all other nations as well. As long as the pandemic is spreading in some parts of the world, getting a grip on it at the national level is only of limited use. Infections are likely to flare up again elsewhere, and keeping borders closed is not an attractive solution, even though narrow-minded nationalists may like the idea.
In response to Covid-19, policymakers must rise to a double challenge. They must do their best to protect the health of human beings and to safeguard the health of economies. Frustration about not being able to travel was an important reason for the collapse of communist rule in former Soviet Union, East Germany and upcoming collapse of closed borders North Korea. New ideas and technologies would be developed at a furious pace, and global civilization on MegaEarth would constitute a loosely integrated collective superintelligence. If we gradually increase the level of integration become a unified intellect—a single large “mind” as opposed to a mere assemblage of loosely interacting smaller human minds. The inhabitants of MegaEarth could take steps in that direction by improving communications and coordination technologies and by developing better ways for many individuals to work on any hard intellectual problem together. Samsung launched mobile health application and Apple and Google work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms. This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities. The international community deserves better. We need prudent global governance – and collective superintelligence which can only result from sensible cooperation. Digitalisation, moreover, is changing societies everywhere. South Korea and Taiwan are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The technology is being used to speed up the development of testing kits and treatments, to track the spread of the virus, and to provide citizens with real-time information.
editor in chief Hyong-Jin KWON,
2nd Quarter 2020 - 5
