A Futurist’s Take on the Time of Coronavirus

Looking Back on a Possible Future

At the beginning of the COVID pandemic — March 26, 2020 to be exact — I was sent an article called Die Welt nach Corona, The World After Corona, by German futurist, Matthias Horx. In it, he presents predictions for the following six months, a picture of the world from March to September, 2020. To accomplish this, Horx stands past and future on their heads in an exercise he calls “RE-gnosis.” This is the opposite of “PRO-gnosis.” This means that, instead of looking forward into the future and making a prognosis, we take…