Thursday, January 19, 2017

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

A concept getting lots of attention at Davos is that of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a concept formulated by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. Here is how it was described there:

"The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres."

The concept is borne out by the current burst in technological innovation, including artificial intelligence, access to huge amounts of data, widespread use of mobile communications devices, and the emerging and converging areas of bio and nano-technology, which ultimately may have the biggest impact of all.

The fourth industrial revolution will challenge many of our precepts about economic behaviour. It will perpetuate and perhaps intensify the digital divide, and place even more importance on the demand for highly skilled talent and less demand for unskilled labour. This of course will create more social tensions. It will create new challenges for education, government and business, all requiring a culture of constant innovation to survive.

All of this means challenges ahead. May you live in interesting times!

For a good summary of the discussion at Davos on this topic, please click this link.

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