The world is full of concern and a voyeur’s inability to help the Thai soccer team and their coach trapped inside the caves of Thailand. Social Media along with traditional media is full of its share of sighs of shock and concern while the Captain Hindsight’s of armchair expertise also chime out assuring the world, or those who can hear them, that they would rescue the boys or have prevented disaster. None of that matters now to those trapped and their families as they suffer inside desperate minutes awaiting each act of heroic rescue.
The many government and volunteer rescuers have from what we can ascertain, tried all that they can to save the boys and their coach, one diver having lost his life surrounding the ordeal. For those charged with the rescue it is hard to know what advice to heed. Likely among the instincts to save exist the layers of official procedures which no doubt as always bogs every effort down. So, the speculation goes on in the distance as the time grows dimmer. For one of those concerned in Thailand they took to Twitter to reach out to Elon Musk and his team of interested minds. With little haste he and others communicated directly on twitter with those on the ground, the rest of the world could only spectate impotently as those there and those with perhaps the minds and resources conspired against the potential for doom.
Twitter illuminated as ideas were shared and advice offered in the minute by minute exchanges, leading to Musk and others to offer their services. The Musk companies were dispatched and at the time of this writing enroute to assist those outside the cave. Perhaps with both relief, fresh ideas and modern equipment the exhausted rescuers can reach the trapped and free them from their plight.
Unfolding among the very real drama exists the potential for a new world of cooperation and the exchange of information. Beyond the pride and official mandates lurks a very real human instinct to help one another. The new reality offered by technology and corporate and private interests can push beyond national pride, tribalism and professional tenures. It is not about having a job or whose hand is raised in the end, it is about the salvation of others, those who are in dire need. In this case a team of children and their adult coach.
What the outcome happens to be is unknown, rescue we can all hope for. The instantaneous brilliance of technology in this case shows that with open communication, beyond censorship and national borders that human beings can communicate and, in a crisis, come together despite the tyranny of distance or barriers of governance and bureaucratic hinderance. It is an impulse and a response to crisis, those that shall occur whether natural or of humanities own vulgarity. It is with optimism and perhaps naivety that we can wish for more of this, for a world where great minds and those with crucial skills may connect and through the benevolence of those with resources and compassion may help to make rescue, provide charity and assistance a reality in as close to an instant as is possible.
The cynic can perhaps look to history and the nature of rule and know that in time such technology will be hampered, denied and monitored. That those in power will always ensure that they remain there, even at the expense of those in need of help, from where ever it may come. But in this moment, as the frontier still exists in its majestic expanse we can hope otherwise. And as those boys and their coach hold on inside a frightening place, those on the outside hopefully do all that is possible to rescue them regardless of the inhibitions of any state and its or hindering self interest.
they can’t stop all progress
