The Illusion of Control

Is the world out of control?
Unex­pect­ed polit­i­cal deci­sions, the weak­en­ing of the Euro­pean Union by Brex­it, the appar­ent insolv­abil­i­ty of reli­gious and world-polit­i­cal con­flicts, ter­ror­ist threats and a pop­ulist heat­ed cri­sis of con­fi­dence in exist­ing sys­tems chal­lenge the world in 2017.

Although we can mea­sure, mon­i­tor, and con­trol more than ever before, we are faced with increas­ing incal­cu­la­bil­i­ty, inse­cu­ri­ty, fear and disorientation.

At the 7th SURPRISE FACTORS SYMPOSIUM, we dis­cussed the ques­tion, if the world is get­ting out of con­trol, with extra­or­di­nary per­son­al­i­ties and tried to explore ways that help us to regain more con­fi­dence and con­trol for our future.

War, pho­tos and democracy
Andrea Bruce told us about her work and showed us, where there is con­trol in the chaos of war.

Supris­es in pol­i­tics — the Brexit
Bri­an Grif­fiths, who is pro Brex­it, talked about about what our soci­eties and wel­fare states need today.

Dis­rup­tion in the media-business
Kai Diek­mann talked about the future of (social-)media and how the busi­ness has to trans­form itself. He thinks: it’s gonna be dig­i­tal, but print wont die.

Expect unpre­dictabil­i­ty
Paul Lend­vai was sure: we can not real­ly learn from his­to­ry, we have to be pre­pared for the unpredictable.

Democ­ra­cy is not a spectator-sport
Alan Web­ber tries to find out for years how democ­ra­cy works and how we can save it. Here is what he knows.