Anticipating Crisis and Enhancing Overall Resilience

The historical record shows the extent to which our societies have suffered over the centuries from catastrophic natural disasters (Ferguson 2021). Examples include periodic plagues, earthquakes and bad harvests. Man-made catastrophes such as the wars and revolutions of the last three centuries have had long-lasting effects. Comparable events must be expected to occur at times in the future too. But we should prepare ourselves for the coming era of more and deeper crises, driven by a combination of the enhanced risks that derive both from climate change and accelerating technological innovation and from the greater vulnerability of globally connected society with its dependence upon digitally controlled infrastructure and corresponding data.