Season 8, Post 39: Living in a TUNA world

Readers, rest assured, this post has nothing to do with fish. TUNA was a new acronym your author learned recently at a major conference he attended on digital transformation. It stands for ‘turbulent, uncertain, novel and ambiguous’ and applies to the world in which we are currently living, according to Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the National Preparedness Commission, who gave a keynote speech.

The UK Commission was founded in November 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its purpose is to promote whole-of-society preparedness, prevention, mitigation, response and recovery from major national crises and disruption. The stark message delivered by Lord Harris was: “as a nation we need to be better prepared.”

Imagine no water or electricity. How might hospitals and other critical infrastructure operate? Would we have sufficient supplies (of food, for example), particularly given the UK’s high reliance on imports? Might the public not trust official information in a world subject to rampant disinformation? Anarchy was one possibility mooted, given “our societal systems are fragile.” The UK’s National Risk Register counts 95 “acute” potential threats, 10% more than a year ago. There is nothing in the Register that contemplates “AI going rogue and escaping its sandbox.”

The good news is that it’s not all doom and gloom. Lord Harris stated on many occasions the importance of “building preparedness” by “recognising that unexpected things will happen” - be it another pandemic, a severe cyberattack, a major power outage or some other unforeseen black swan event. Talks such as this matter, as they can help drive “a shift in the collective mindset.” Consider too maybe a torch with new batteries, a wind-up radio and lots of drinking water stored at home.

Your author was fortunately accompanied at the conference by his colleague, Heptagon’s Chief Technology Officer (pictured and featured in prior Blog posts this year). When asked how a firm such as ours might prepare for a TUNA world, it was reassuring to learn about the full disaster recovery plans and data back-ups that exist. Just as importantly, he stressed how “pushing an era of paranoia” where “everyone follows best practice” (for example, in cyber hygiene) represents a winning strategy and can help inspire “herd immunity.”

28 October 2026

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