Futurists know from studying history that the most improbable things happen quite regularly. Already in the 21st century, we’ve had terrorist attacks, financial crashes, authoritarian governments, tsunamis, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and now a global pandemic. While these events have surprised many leaders, almost all have been forecast in advance by futurists, scientists, technologists, and government officials. From history we know that a pandemic is a once-in-a-generation event, one that will cause death, economic hardship, and permanent changes to our society. The COVID-19 pandemic (also called the novel coronavirus pandemic) will offer invaluable lessons for the world to understand how wildcard events like this happen and is a good example of the benefits of foresight.

中文翻译：

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远见与 COVID-19 大流行

未来主义者通过研究历史知道，最不可能的事情经常发生。早在 21 世纪，我们就经历过恐怖袭击、金融崩溃、威权政府、海啸、人工智能 (AI) 的兴起，现在又是一场全球大流行。虽然这些事件让许多领导人感到惊讶，但几乎所有事件都已被未来学家、科学家、技术专家和政府官员提前预测。从历史上我们知道，大流行是一代人一次的事件，会导致死亡、经济困难和我们社会的永久性变化。COVID-19 大流行（也称为新型冠状病毒大流行）将为世界提供宝贵的经验教训，以了解像这样的通配符事件是如何发生的，并且是预见性好处的一个很好的例子。