It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No It's... elon musk

The other evening I was outside with some others just enjoying the night sky, when one of our party suddenly gasped. 

"Look look there..." and then their words faded away.

As people turned to look the gasps grew and they all started talking at once.

This was their view.

They were confused and some were going straight to fear pretty quickly. 

None of them knew what it was, but the range of their fear and guesses caught me off guard.

I explained this was Elon Musks attempt to internet-ize the world with thousands of satellites in space managing our internet connections. There are currently over 2000 up there and may eventually run over 40,000. This was the latest batch moving towards their final orbit.

Some observations.

I was surprised that most of them did not know about this. These were Masters and Doctorate level trained people, mostly Americans who live in the largest cities in America. How had they not known about it?

And secondly I was surprised how they responded so quickly to a place of fear. 

Certainly not all of them. A couple were still trying to figure out what they were. Missiles or planes or...  But enough moved to concern for our safety and what was happening to the world that night that I realized what must this mean for people who don't know this is going on.

Think about in the middle of Africa or China, what they might be thinking. Then think about those in small locations in America, Europe or Asia, or Canada. They could jump to conclusions about the end of times really quickly. And that belief may cause them to make rash decisions.

If there is anything we learned about Covid it is the peoples ability to believe lies and to assume the worst as they perceive it. 

We could be in for an even rougher ride.