Through the Looking Glass: An Evening with Vinay Gupta

The recent visit of Stoneleigh (aka Nicole Foss) to Ireland disturbed anyone who heard her speak about the imminent collapse of our global financial system. However, while delivering a compelling argument as to how we’ve gotten to this point and the inevitability of collapse, in her talk she gave little consideration to what will happen during or after such a collapse.  While an unpleasant scenario to consider, we have an obligation to investigate it further.  Does it mean the end of civilisation as we know it?  What steps will governments take to avoid such a catastrophe and might they work, and at what cost?

Vinay explored these questions and examined the structures which underlie social, political, financial and supply-chain systems, suggesting they may not be as vulnerable as some might fear. He discussed different kinds of fragile systems and society’s exposure to them, as well as mapping certain kinds of basic utilities and working on how they might be stabilized or resurrected in the face of a systemic collapse.

Dougald Hine – An Evening with Vinay Gupta from justmultimedia on Vimeo.

Richard O’Rourke – An evening with Vinay Gupta from justmultimedia on Vimeo.

Q&A – An Evening with Vinay Gupta from justmultimedia on Vimeo.

Vinay’s presentation was followed by a panel Q&A session chaired by John Gibbons (thinkorswim.ie). Joining Vinay on the panel was Feasta’s David Korowicz, author of the recent Tipping Point report, and Dougald Hine, a co-founder of the Dark Mountain project.

Vinay Gupta is a thinker on catastrophe and resilience, with a particular interest in responses to nuclear terrorism, genocide and various kinds of worst-case natural disaster. He is currently working on a book project, thefuturewedeserve.com.  A summary of his work can be found at hexayurt.com/plan 

Special thanks to Eoin Campbell and Alex Duffy for filming this event and formatting the video for Vimeo.

Monday 27th September 2010| 19.30 – 22.00 | €10 / €5 for members (ASPO, Cultivate, FEASTA) | The Greenhouse, St Andrew St, D2 (map) | Vinay’s YouTube invitation to you

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