Huw Price | University of Cambridge/CSER

Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge |

Cofounder, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

Things we should be careful not to forget:

1. Remember the sense that it came out of nowhere, and that even experts don’t seem to have been able to conceptualise what was going to happen – even when they had experts in China and WHO telling them what was going to happen. There’s something structural here that we need to fix, or find ways to work around. (It is partly a human psychological issue, a difficulty in seeing bad news, and partly a structural problem in the way that science and policy advice works.) In one sense, none of this is news, but now we have all lived through a real case of it – we mustn’t let that experience go to waste! 🙂

2. Remember all the kindness that emerged in our communities, as people tried to deal with this together … and let’s try to steer a bit of that kindness towards the future, to make it easier to take responsibility for what happens to future generations.

Find more of Huw’s lockdown reflections here.