The ‘hyper-connected’ modern society, which has increased complexity beyond the past, has various and unpredictable risk factors. To effectively respond to a complex large crisis, efforts are needed to minimize the social impact of unpredictable r...
The ‘hyper-connected’ modern society, which has increased complexity beyond the past, has various and unpredictable risk factors. To effectively respond to a complex large crisis, efforts are needed to minimize the social impact of unpredictable risks. As seen in COVID-19, it is important to anticipate 'extreme future events(X-events)' and secure a preemptive response base. Above all, it is required to strengthen the ability of convergence response at the social full-scale level to build a highly resilient social system. In this context, this study aims to identify major extreme future risks that Korea should pay attention to in the future and to show the direction to approach at the national system level beyond short-term R&D policy presentation through several in-depth analysis cases. Furthermore, the goal was to draw an innovation agenda for strengthening the resilience of the entire period such as plan, absorb, recover, and adapt for crisis situations.
Among the 10 major extreme future events selected through the survey of experts and the public, this study analyzed three cases of representativeness in terms of health, environment and technology in depth. The first is the issue of ‘human security threats by killer microorganisms’. Today, the threat of human security by microorganisms is evolving into a global threat. The World Health Organization has added a bio-medically unknown pathogen that is likely to be abruptly attacked to its list of Disease Xs. According to previous studies, there are about 1,400 human pathogens on the planet. The evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases are not limited to pathogens. It can lead to ecosystems, humans, animals, and climate change, and can be spread widely from cells to ecosystems, from regions to the world. Population structure and behavior changes, indiscriminate land use and biodiversity destruction, activation of overseas travel and international trade, increased interaction between humans and livestock and wildlife, globalization and rapid urbanization, high population density, and increased international travel and trade make infectious pathogens more frequent and increase opportunities for propagation. The pandemic of infectious diseases at the global level is a challenge and opportunity for the leadership and public health system of each country. It is true that the level of infectious disease response in Korea has progressed through the experience in the meantime, but systematic preparation is always necessary, and multi-layered and multi-faceted systems should be integrated. The principle of preparing for future disease X should start with the One Health framework that encompasses human-animal-environment. Response and contrast goals are social responses such as dynamic strategies of various non-drug interventions, medical responses such as effective vaccine and therapeutic development, and social infrastructure and economic response. Therefore, from the perspective of the whole cycle resilience, the public trust in systematic pathogen monitoring, monitoring for early detection, expanding the availability of appropriate data, capacity building education, and legal dynamics to public health practice, efficient step-up evaluation system, development of appropriate diagnostic devices for each purpose, crisis communication, global governance, and public health can be more important.
The second issue of in-depth analysis is the occurrence of ‘extreme drought’ due to extreme climate change. According to the IPCC's 6th evaluation report, the frequency and intensity of extreme climate phenomena are expected to increase gradually every time global warming is intensified, and the temperature and precipitation of Korea are expected to increase. In particular, it is necessary to prepare more actively for drought, which is expected to cause more damage due to the combination of temperature rise and water circulation change. The paths of future mega drought in Korea can be divided into two main categories. One is meteorological drought due to climate change, hydrological drought, agricultural drought, etc. The other is socioeconomic drought due to water supply decline and demand increase. Direct causes of future mega droughts include increased rainfall-free days due to heavy rains such as climate change, reduced moisture content of forests and soils, and accelerated drought due to continuous demand growth. This mega-mum will be directly or indirectly affected not only in our lives but also in various fields such as ecosystem, industrial, climate change, and international relations. As challenges in various fields that the future mega-mum is expected to trigger, full-cycle countermeasures from a resilience perspective are needed. In the preventive stage, major policies such as infrastructure construction and management, monitoring, manual construction, and publicity are needed. In the absorption stage, major policies such as countermeasures after the event, operation of various emergency systems, education, publicity and monitoring should be prepared. In the recovery stage, policies such as diversification of water supply, data sharing and DB construction, preparation of specific damage countermeasures, education and publicity are required. Finally, in the adaptation stage, policies such as maintenance and management of the established emergency system, restoration of ecosystem, establishment of international cooperation system, various R&D research, education and publicity are needed. In particular, it is necessary to consider policies such as system upgrading, social conflict resolution, and education in terms of evolutionary adaptation.
The third issue of in-depth analysis, 'the emergence of uncontrollable Super AI', is an extreme future event in the typical technical aspect. In Korea, research and discussions on artificial intelligence ethics and guidelines have been steadily conducted, but there have been few studies and discussions on super-intelligence AI. All automated social infrastructures connected to electricity and computers, including finance, power grids, broadcasting communications, military weapons and healthcare, are expected to be placed outside human control. In preparation for this, it is necessary to study the ripple force and response to the occurrence of super intelligence. Technical definition and approach are essential to discuss super intelligence at the science and technology and policy level. It is also important to note that the issue of super intelligence is regarded as a story in SF, and theoretical research on super intelligence is mainly dealt with in the areas of 'imagination' and 'future studies'. The focus of the recent research is also significant in that it is focused on the 'universal artificial intelligence' which can be said to be the previous stage rather than 'super intelligence'. Generalized artificial intelligence is an artificial intelligence that can be inferred from a wide range of areas. In the world, super intelligence is not yet a major agenda. 1.0) and the redefined super-intelligence (ver. 0.7) or 'hybrid super-intelligence' study are proposed as follow-up research topics. Although it is also revealed in global trends, it is realistic and urgent to switch to topics such as 'risk management', 'safe use', and 'securing reliability' of artificial intelligence, not dealing with 'super intelligence' itself. Furthermore, considering the occurrence of individual events (super-intelligence ver. 0.7) rather than the total situation (super-intelligence ver. 1.0), a scenario for various agendas is prepared. In order to manage risk by sector with scenarios, it is necessary to prepare risk classification system, impact evaluation system, management plan, and regulatory means.
In the end, the above three future X-events suggest that strengthening the national recovery capacity for unpredictable challenges is essential. To do this, we need to maximize the utility of response by having priority policies that are common denominators. Therefore, this study selected key policy options applicable to the above three cases and derived an agenda for effective combination in the whole cycle based on RPM.
First, in the preventive stage, it is necessary to establish a convergent organization, program and knowledge base and strengthen linkage to reduce uncertainty in order to realize 'building a social system that preemptively prepares for future risk issues'. In the absorption phase, it is necessary to focus on establishing a super-connected communication system to maintain sustainable system function, timely share information with the aim of realizing 'securing full-scale response capability for strengthening national viability'. In the recovery stage, an integrated infrastructure system should be established to provide systematic resource management and universal safety nets with the aim of strengthening system resilience from an inclusive perspective for national safety innovation. Finally, as an agenda for evolutionary adaptation, it is necessary to establish a "establishment of a leading innovation system for technology and society coevolution" and focus on building an innovation control tower to solve the national difficulties beyond crisis response.