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Where are we at?

In the midst of a pandemic, at the end of a Presidential administration, after a brutal hurricane season paired with equally brutal wildfires, thinking about the future of emergency management seems like a weird fever dream. Who are we to think not of the current recoveries, but of future emergencies, disaster events, and unexpected calamities that might befall any of us?

But such is the way of those of us who work in preparedness, who seek to increase resilience, survivability, and potential actions to be taken in the midst of crisis. The purview of this particular special interest group – science and technology integration – is maybe a little hypocritical. After all, what is less resilient, what is less reliable, than tech?

Our cell phones cannot survive a strong breeze, let alone an earthquake. Even the most simple programs we can call machine learning are kept together with obscenely taut, fragile strands of hair with so many dependencies as to resemble a rube goldberg machine well after it has run its course. And artificial intelligence, in all its capabilities, is fraught with human weaknesses, oversights, and biases so old as to remain invisible, unnoticed, and vituperative in their appearance.

Yet, we sit in what will hopefully be a year that begins recovery from the pandemic. The public will be thinking about prevention, about preparations, and about resiliency. So too, will tech companies be seeking to correct, fix, or develop products that did not perform to expectations. With the sanctity of science under attack, education, pursuit of science communication, and training the populace on the basics of scientific endeavors will be at the fore of policy, action, and research.

What better time than now to pursue 3 specific action items:

1. Increase resiliency of technology by outlining its potential use by emergency responders in the midst of all types of crisis

   One of the most difficult aspects of development of technology for emergency management is that there is a gap between what is possible from the perspective of EM and from developers. For EM, it is difficult to imagine a world where machine learning and AI actually work within the field. It is difficult to see how drones, crowdsourcing, or even emergent groups like the Cajun Navy may be integrated with command and control frameworks. From the perspective of developers, it can be difficult to develop products that simply work, that do not rely on the bleeding edge, but stable technology that can withstand a lack of connectivity. It can be difficult to design for the EM user simply because the restrictions, policies, and operating environments are so foreign as to be as unknowable as the potential of tech from the EM perspective. By working on bridging this gap, an increased number of resources can be levied to better prepare EM for current and future disasters.

2. Increase human literacy of technology development by outlining unexpected ways humans have used technology in the midst of all types of crisis.

   For development, a stable environment and malleable user are required aspects of design. Yet, within crisis and disaster, the environment is no longer stable and the user must find malleable software to use to coordinate, communicate, or request help. The years of designing for stable environments like offices or mobile devices, are quickly receding. In their place are environments that need new, old, and unexpected functionality. EM is consistently in a spot wherein they observe this kind of appropriation and developers need this sort of information in order to increase the human literacy of tech development.

3. Increase scientific representation in preparation and planning through pop culture, advocacy, and plain English technological demonstrations.

   Throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, all types of pop culture references were around to help point out certain aspects of everyday life. Smokey the bear warned us constantly of the need to be safe with fire in the forest. The Crash Test Dummies helped us cross the 100th mile of seat belt safety. Louie the Lightning Bug reminded us about the dangers of cords and electricity. All of these representations of preparation and safety fostered generations of well-informed citizens. At current, there are dangers now that were not present during that time. Misinformation, privacy restrictions, ways to detect pollution, cyber-bullying, potential school shooters, and other kinds of passive threats that needs to be represented within the ever-growing landscape of memes, commercials, and viral videos. To be noticed within the current entertainment environment will require an enormous amount of technical know-how and practical demonstration.

The world after 2021 will be very different from the world that existed prior to it. Groups and advocates like this one will need to work tirelessly to ensure that EM and technology can rise to meet those challenges.