Blackout Protocol: What Happens When the Lights Go Out?

In a fictional near-future, a European city suffers a total blackout—no power, no internet, no cloud. This talk explores whether crypto, GenAI, and urban hacking can help rebuild a sustainable urban civilization. Do these tools matter when everything breaks down—or are they part of the problem?

As the creator of Blackout Prague (www.blackout-prague.cz) - a socio-artistic simulation of a citywide collapse - I’ve spent years exploring what happens when digital systems fail and society must adapt. I bring 4+ years of experience organizing GreenHack (www.greenhack.eu), one of Europe’s largest sustainability hackathons, and I’ve advised CEPS (the Czech national grid operator) and the City of Prague on resilience strategies. Trained in Scennario Planning under Prof. Rafael Ramirez of University of Oxford, I apply strategic foresight to design speculative futures that challenge our tech-utopian assumptions.