Problem
Risk-aversion strategy
Other Names:
Reactionary methods of avoiding danger Nature:
The contemporary risk aversion strategy, 'no trials without prior guarantee against error' plays a major role in government policy, is a rigid, reactionary system, which places stringent limits on the number of hypotheses that can be tested, and thus on innovation, learning and self-correction. It freezes existing dangers. It assumes that danger can be outlawed, that safety and danger can be severed from each other. Safety and danger are the warp and woof of nature and technology. To focus exclusively on sources of danger is to direct thought and resources toward an infinity of hypothetical or acutely low-probability risks, such as one molecule can cause cancer, while ignoring and damaging the inextricably related sources of safety.
Broader Problems:
RiskObsolete methodsIrresponsible policy-making Narrower Problems:
Economic philosophy of controlled risk Related Problems:
Obsession with noveltyAbsence of tactical methodsShort-range planning for long-term development Aggravates:
Uncoordinated policy-makingRisk of unintentional nuclear war generated by the strategy of deterrence Subject(s):
Societal Problems → HazardsStrategy → Strategy
Problem Type:
F: Fuzzy exceptional problems Date of last update
04.10.2020 – 22:48 CEST