There has been much recent discussion about the impacts of new technology on work. There is a fear that robotics and computerization can displace and dislocate workers, and possibly lead to mass unemployment. While the technologies are new, this basic dynamic is hundreds of years old, going back at least to the industrial revolution. The impact of automation on workers is often presented in a mechanical or deterministic way, as if technology determines economics. But really, the future of work in the context of automation is always a political question.

Today few terms are more central to policy, planning, or economics then the term “resilience”. From urban planning to stress testing in economic markets, we have come to understand systems as constantly in a state of crisis that needs perpetual management. This talk traces the rise of resilience as a central epistemology and practice in environmental management, urban development, and finance. I will argue that resilience has become the dominant discourse by which time and uncertainty are currently being managed in computation, finance, and design. Moreover, resilience has become a new logic making the planet, and its living populations, computationally measurable and representable, and amenable to new forms of technical manipulation and action. This talk will be a whirlwind tour through the merger of cybernetics, ecology, and finance that are currently reshaping the planet from extraction infrastructures to smart cities.