abstract system

is a system which has penetrated daily life and depends on trust while offering none of the moral rewards of personalized trust and all of the risks and vulnerability borne by the abstract system.

Abstract systems depend on trust, yet they provide none of the moral rewards which can be obtained from personalised trust, or were often available in traditional settings from the moral frameworks within which everyday life was undertaken. Moreover, the wholesale penetration of abstract systems into daily life creates risks which the individual is not well placed to confront... high-consequence risks fall into this category. Greater interdependence, up to and including globally independent systems, means greater vulnerability when untoward events occur that affect those systems as a whole'

abstract system, n.Definitions

abstract system