The fourth industrial revolution is apparently upon us. Will it rob us of our hearts and soul? Or will it inaugurate a new collective and moral consciousness?
A TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION THAT WILL FUNDAMENTALLY ALTER THE WAY WE LIVE, WORK, AND RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER.
Ask the World Economic Forum
This week the world’s most powerful people (heads of state, business elite, vocal academics) are gathering for another round of the World Economic Forum.
Serenely located in the Swiss luxury-resort of Davos, Olympian-style, away from the noise and messiness of the world’s lowlands, forum delegates are trying to figure out what’s going on, right now – and what’s going to happen to us in the future.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
In an opening blog post the forum’s Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab is announcing the coming of the fourth industrial revolution:
“[A] technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.”
The revolution will be implanted
Comparing the previous three (1. Mechanisation of production 2. Mass production 3. Automation of production) with the upcoming revolution, Schwab writes that the fourth will be:
“[C]haracterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres… [with] the potential to “robotize” humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart and soul.”
On the upside he sees that it can be a “complement to the best parts of human nature—creativity, empathy, stewardship— [lifting] humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny.”
As it stands right now, according to Schwab, it’s all in the balance and up for grabs (read: up to us).
What’s your skill-set?
At the heart of Schwab’s argument lies the real danger that technology might make humans irrelevant, at least from a production point-of-view. He sees an increasing divide between those who are skilled and those who are not (low-skill/low-pay – high-skill/high-pay), with growing tensions between the two camps, and the machines occupying the middle-ground.
Simply put: a continued and increasing dominance of the many by the few.
What is everyone going to do?
With the world’s population growing and most babies being born into relative poverty, what is everyone going to do once they grow up? What jobs will be available to those who cannot find or afford education?
The answer is, as of now: We don’t know.
What we do know is that we are faced with an unprecedented challenge in the history of humanity.
As Schwab writes: “[W]e must develop a comprehensive and globally shared view of how technology is affecting our lives and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. There has never been a time of greater promise, or one of greater potential peril.”
The world we hand our children
As parents we need to put ourselves in the place of our children and grandchildren (and their children) and try to envisage the world we would like them to live in. Without a shared empathetic vision for the future the picture looks very bleak.
But rarely (if never) before has a generation been asked not to look out for itself primarily, but to plan for events that will take place after its own time.
Hopefully the two are not mutually excusive. The way we behave now should benefit both ourselves and those who will come after us.
We need to make technology work for everyone.
