Black swans serve as a metaphor for sudden, unpredictable events which have a strong impact and can only be explained upon their completion. The second meet-up within the ‘Conversation about the Future’ initiative was held on Tuesday, 24 December 2024 at the Institute of Physics Belgrade. It focused precisely on such events, as well as on how to prepare for them. Titled The Black Swan Lake, the gathering drew inspiration from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s seminal book The Black Swan and his other works.
The programme ‘Conversations about the Future’ is dedicated to engaging, multidisciplinary topics and was conceived by Dr Aleksandar Belić, who organizes these events with support from the Institute’s Department of Communications.
Per the concept of this programme, Dr Belić introduced the topic at the beginning, giving an overview of fundamental Taleb’s theses on coincidence and predictability and naming terms such as fragility and robustness which measure one’s ability to confront unpredictable black swan events. The event featured three more speakers and they include renowned economist Dr Branko Urošević of the School of Computing of the University of Belgrade, mathematician Dr Zoran Ognjanović of the Mathematical Institute of SASA and Dr Srđa Janković, immunologist and author of the iconic series ‘Solaris’ on Radio Belgrade who translated Taleb’s works.
Following introductory addresses, most attendees joined an interesting and constructive discussion on various aspects of predictability and coincidence management, in physics, economy, mathematics, medicine, sociology, philosophy, science history, safety and other disciplines.
‘The Conversations about the Future’ initiative takes place at the Institute of Physics Belgrade in a dedicated space called Tavan, envisioned as a gathering place for researchers and thinkers from diverse academic fields.
Photos by Bojan Džodan
