Safety in the Online World of the Future

Abstract

In this article, we address what it means to be safe in the online world of the future by advocating the perspective whereby improving safety will improve resilience in cyberspace. We adopt a specific approach towards transdisciplinarity; present a weakly transdisciplinary model of the safety context and an initial position about what existing disciplines are most relevant; and link prospect theory to risk-based decision making as one example that could lead to a new paradigm for safety. By treating safety as a transdisciplinary challenge, there is an opportunity to enable the participants of the online world to become more productive and creative than ever before. The beneficiary of this increased productivity and creativity will ultimately be the public. The perspective of this article is of interest to senior decision makers, policy makers, managers, educators, strategists, futurists, scientists, technologists, and others interested in shaping the online world of the future.