SAVE THE DATE

USI 2022 - STATE OF SHOCK

Shocks, crises and disruptions—whether they are health, technological, economic or environmental—tend to become our reality. The exceptional has become our new, and daily normality.

If the end of an era is characterized by the act of turning a page and moving on to something else, we are entitled to wonder whether the virtual permanence of crises means that we are changing epochs with insane frequency or if, on the contrary, we cannot turn the page. Are we living in a time of no epoch, like the character played by Bill Murray in the film “Groundhog’s Day,” who is stuck in a time loop and keeps reliving the same day over and over.
Every shock has a counter-shock or a backlash, and beyond the initial impact there are consequences. So what happens after the shock?

USI 2022 will therefore dive deep into the state of shock: how to anticipate it, how to cope with it, and how to deal with the aftermath. This theme will be explored by speakers from a variety of fields as we ask questions such as: How do we manage psychological trauma? How resilient are our digital systems? Are biological ecosystems able to withstand stress and environmental changes? How and why do civilizations collapse?