Why Our Knowledge Economy Can Survive the New Age of Pestilence

According to an unknown pundit, “history is a sequence of disasters and the stuff in between them is boring.” While each catastrophic event is unique in the chaos that it sows and how it shapes subsequent human events, in the throes of crisis, we often look back, seeking patterns to assuage our uncertainty. So, it’s not surprising that interest in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic surged along with the coronavirus earlier this year — but perhaps the important lesson to take from history is not what is similar but what is different .

It would be convenient if all major disasters c.....