Byeongwon Park Ph. D.  Team Leader at the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning, Seoul Korea works with the Korean Foresight studies of extreme developments.

The country has reached a critical point in economic growth, after which both further progress (albeit on a more modest scale), and rapid decline are possible, which prompts the government to turn to experts for potential solutions. The project undertaken by the institute’s experts resulted in development of “sustainability portfolios” for particularly relevant scenarios, such as problems with internet communications, fluctuations of energy prices, proliferation of nuclear power stations, official introduction of 75 years retirement age.

Byeongwon noted that an important aspect of the extreme developments problem (meeting the challenges and realistically assessing the threats) was preparing the society for them.