Welcome to this course on risk in modern society. Risk has become one of the defining features of our modern society. Almost daily, we and by extension the societies we live in are preoccupied with debating, preventing, and managing a wide variety of risks. These risks appear in many forms ranging from new technologies such as nuclear power or genetic modifications, to terrorism, floods and earthquakes. Risks threaten what we value and can directly or indirectly affect our lives in numerous ways from impacting our safety and security to diminishing our peace of mind, our income or the quality of the environment we live in. As a result, a wide range of research and practices has been developed around the measurement and control of risk. Now, where did this come from, and how did risk become such an important feature in our modern society? To answer these questions, we must first take a closer look at the history of risk. While we may not realize it, risk is actually a relatively modern concept. Until the end of the Middle Ages, there was no notion of risk as we understand it today. Many of the dangers people face in this time such as war, disease, famine, cold, or natural disasters were simply seen as hazards of life. There were acts of God over which man had no control. During the Renaissance, however, three developments would significantly change this notion of risk. The first development is the introduction of the Hindu-Arabic numbering system in Europe. Reaching the West some 700-800 years ago, it introduced the symbol for 0. This allowed advanced calculations in tens, hundreds, thousands, or a negative numbers, which in turn provided a basis for modern mathematics, technology, and science. The second related development was the invention of probability theory. Invented in the 17th century, probability theory was originally devised to deal with games of chance, for example, in gambling. Here, it was used to mathematically calculate the odds of winning. The discovery of probability theory meant that people could, for the first time, make predictions and decisions with the help of numbers. As the years passed, mathematicians transformed this theory to assist in the growing need of society to organize, interpret, and apply information. As we will see later on in this course, these modules underlie many of the techniques we use to assess risks today. The final development that would challenge the medieval notion of risk was the growth of bureaucratic states in the 19th century. Bureaucratic states are characterized by large quantities of systematically collected information. For example, on economic affairs or its population. This generate a large amounts of data which could then be statistically analyzed to predict a wide variety of events. Combined, these developments transformed our conception of risk, taking us from the belief that we were at the mercy of the gods to a notion that risks could be understood, assessed, and controlled. This notion, the attempt to control risk is perhaps one of the defining features of today's world. So, to summarize, what have we learned? In this video, we have looked at the history of risk using three important historical developments, namely, the introduction of the Hindu-Arabic numbering system, the discovery of probability theory, and the growth of modern bureaucratic states. We have seen how our conception of risk has changed significantly from the middle ages where people felt that they had no control over harmful events, all the way to modern times where our attempt to control risk is now a key feature of life.