Following on our post ‘How the Covid-19 is a ‘Common Cause Failure’ Crisis‘, let’s examine how this type of issues or their consequences could be better prevented.
There are quite a few potential common cause failures that could affect humankind with a sizable probability. Climate change is one obvious. Another example is some kind of solar magnetic eruption that could destroy electronic systems.
How can societies be made more resilient to this type of situation? The only approach is to diversify the means to minimise the possibility that they are all affected at the same time; and in addition build-up reserves to be able to sustain a painful transition to some other operating mode.
The important aspect here is diversity. And we need to recognize that the Collaborative Age needs to foster diversity, contrary to the standardisation that was so characteristic of the Industrial Age. Diversity needs to be express itself in society setup, and also geographically. Collaborative Age does enhance diversity; our supply chains also need to follow suit.
