Risks and Resilience
or
...it’s not like it’s the end of the world...
Jamais Cascio
Open the Future
November 14, 2008

Everybody Talks About
the End of the World...
But What Do They Really Mean?

resilience: the capacity of a system to tolerate
disturbance without collapsing, to withstand shocks, to
rebuild itself when necessary, and to improve itself
when possible.

resilient system design
principles

diversity

redundancy

micro-offsets
decentralization

transparency

collaboration

graceful failure

minimal footprint

flexibility

openness

reversibility

foresight

Abundant, varied components able to function as
a greater whole, but also able to withstand the
loss (through damage or disagreement) of a
significant subset of components.

So... how do we make this happen?

Jamais Cascio • cascio@openthefuture.com