Overview

Emergency situations, especially mega-scale, in today's connected world require sophisticated responses involving extraordinarily close collaboration between humans and technologies. The concept of resilience has been identified as encapsulating a highly desirable characteristic of both humans and technologies in these settings. Although resilience has been the subject of extensive research in various academic and technical domains, it needs to be thoroughly re-examined in relation to the prospect of a post-human future, e.g. in 50 to 100 years, in which human capacities may be manipulated and radically enhanced. If you are interested in this challenge and have relevant ideas or expertise, you are invited to join us in our upcoming workshop where the concept of resilience will take centre stage.

Emergencies scale from affecting one person to disasters affecting hundreds or even thousands of people; some are foreseeable, while others strike with no prior warning. Their causes range from illness and infection to human violence and natural disasters. As diverse as they seem, what they have in common is that they deeply impact on the wellbeing of the humans affected and that they have the potential of large and catastrophic impact on economic standing - affecting a single person or an entire region or nation. As a consequence, measures and technologies are put in place and constantly refined, which try to minimize the impact (e.g. early detection of cancer by screening, or evacuation plans for buildings) and to deal with the aftermath (e.g. rescue and emergency response plans for hurricane affected areas). The practical aspects of planning, training, and technological preparedness are constantly evolving. It is therefore important to think about the day-to-day aspects, but it is equally important to think into the future and enable improvements not currently possible but in line with expected technology developments.