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Abstract:

The world faces a multiplicity of global catastrophic risks (GCRs), whose functionality as individual and collective complex adaptive networks (CANs) poses unique problems for governance in a world that itself comprises an intricately interlinked set of CANs. Here we examine necessary conditions for new approaches to governance that consider the known properties of CANs—especially that small changes in one part of the system can cascade and amplify throughout the system and that the system as a whole can also undergo rapid, dramatic, and often unpredictable change with little or no warning.

Abstract:

There is talk about a “fourth industrial revolution” that will change how goods are produced, itself a result of the underlying digital transformation and global economic shifts. Much of this has been a discussion of what manufacturing will be like, and how this influences economic and social progress. However, an understudied question is how this transformation can affect human well-being. Clearly past shifts in human modes of production and societal organization have changed both the opportunities for living a good life, and how they can be expressed. This paper aims to analyze how Industry 4.0 affects these factors, and in particular note where research, technical or policy work is needed to ensure that it enhances well-being rather than impairs it.