Yurchenko N.I. Review of the Jamais Cascio’s article «Facing the Age of Chaos»

The overview of the article “Facing the Age of Chaos” by futurologist Jamais Cascio is presented. In the face of an era characterized by chaos, uncertainty and unprecedented challenges, this article is a thoughtful analysis and proposed framework for overcoming the complexities of the current world. The author delves into the limitations of existing paradigms, in particular the widely accepted concept of VUCA (an acronym that describes the world as volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), and presents the concept of BANI as a more nuanced lens through which to understand the current state of affairs. BANI is an acronym for “Brittle”, “Anxious”, “Nonlinear”, and “Incomprehensible”. The article examines in detail each component of the BANI concept. "Brittleness" refers to systems that are susceptible to sudden catastrophic failure, often due to excessive attention to their efficiency. “Anxiety” is explored as the pervasive feeling of helplessness and fear that characterizes the modern world. “Nonlinearity” explains the disproportionate cause-and-effect relationships of current reality. "Incomprehensibility" describes the confusing nature of events and decisions in an era of information overload. J. Cascio's article ends with a discussion of the need to move away from the mass apocalyptic sentiments of people and a call to search for new opportunities, language and paradigms of thinking. According to the author, the BANI structure is a suitable tool for ordering and making sense of chaos. This concept serves as recognition of the phase of transformation that the world is going through.

Key words: VUCA, BANI, chaos, brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible

For citation: Yurchenko, N.I. (2023). Review of the Jamais Cascio’s article «Facing the Age of Chaos». New Psychological Research, No. 4, 131–139. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2023_03_04_08

Acknowledgment

The article was prepared within a state task, project FNRE-2021-0001.