People strolled through the Arcade Building in Coolidge Corner. Most of the businesses inside were closed last week.LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

"The world has never felt quite this much like a dystopian science-fiction movie with an overheated, overwritten plot. So how do you get a view that extends beyond the latest twist in the coronavirus crisis?

"Scott Kirsner did two things. First, he sought input from business people on Twitter . 'In your business’s current planning', he asked: 'When do you expect the crisis will have subsided?' 78 percent of the respondents said they’re betting on about six months — by roughly September. That number was split evenly between people who are expecting their companies to be returning to some kind of even keel by June, and those looking to September, instead. (The remaining 22 percent expected it to last until December, or even into 2021.)

"Then, I took that September timeframe and asked a handful of business futurists and science-fiction writers what they expect the world to be like then."

Article: It Actually May Be The End Of The World As We Know It