Managing Risk in a Complex, Fragile World

Today's topic is: How do we prepare for things to “go bad”?

The news cycle presents us with a litany of horrors from local to global, and most of us have inbuilt filtering strategies that enable us to not be overwhelmed on a daily basis. Life adapts for survival, and our human brain is no exception. So, what are our strategies for planning for the future?

Should we be assuming we will each be on our own?
Will the social systems that have spread humanity across the world provide enough of a safety net?

Or has humanity been predicting its own end for so long that, as a species, we have become that "boy who cried wolf" too many times - to ourselves?

Are we more likely to be hard-coded as individuals to believe that we are going to survive the next challenge if we can identify the groups or individuals that we feel are “less” prepared or able than us to weather a coming storm?

The format for the event is that of a campsite open fire, folks who may have crossed paths in other meetups and friends who have not met yet. There is no required knowledge, education level, or perspective. Still, as with most campfire discussions, if you have little ones about you, you need to use your parental/guardian discretion about whether they should be within earshot - not all family stories are happy ones, and they should still have places people can tell them.