What the Fourth Industrial Revolution means to me

“And God said; let us make man in our own image”
I begin this writing with a quote from the Christian’s Holy Book; On the cusp of a fourth industrial revolution, I believe fully that man is saying
“Let us make machines in our own image”
This essay requires me to give a quite personal preview of what the fourth industrial revolution would mean, i.e. to me, my family and community. However, I cannot but write from a seemingly broad African perspective because most of the comprising states share common shackles of poverty, sickness, conflict and poor leadership so I cannot but express myself as a member of that society.
Africa has severely lagged behind in the revolutions that have come before.
Some would call that a rather charitable statement. Africa has had little or no industrial revolution.
As an African, I must admit, the fourth industrial revolution excites me more than a little. Not only does it provide the opportunity for our communities to advance very rapidly in development, but there is also an actual expectation that the emerging leaders in the African continent will manage this advancement much better than their forebears.
What our (limited) history shows us is that as at the first revolution through to the second, Africa was only heavily involved in lucrative trade of her resources and so only just before just third revolution, did we see industrialization begin develop in countries like Egypt and South Africa-largely due to their huge diamond deposits. These two countries have, today, come a long way, and quickly too having digital and automotive industries unlike most part of the continent.
Hobsbawm (1964) holds that the first industrial revolution which began in Britain in the eighteenth century began for a number of reasons. Britain possessed at virtually all levels of society a hard-working, innovative, risk-taking private sector that received strong support from the government. There existed a close tie between private initiative and creative governmental support throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
However anyone who is familiar with African affairs will confirm that these factors are only just materializing in the emerging generation.
One of the assurances we have is the fact that in the industrial revolutions is that no one necessarily needs to start afresh and go through a two century journey to advancement. Technology is today available for a fee and in some cases for free.
The Foundations of industrial revolution, in my opinion are available electrical power, telecommunications and education which is Human development. This is rapidly becoming available in our communities. Power is attaining new peak generation and distribution records and internet penetration according to International Telecommunication union is “extending rapidly and into rural areas”. From a Hundred Million users in year 2000, developing areas of the world now have over Two billion users and growing in just 15 years. This has enhanced both formal and informal education to help bridge the gap between us and the West.
So what practical changes would these translate into?
For one, I would pay less, far less than what I currently spend on mobile (often unreliable) internet so it’s great news to my pocket, find information more easily to develop myself and increase my productivity.
From a broader perspective, I foresee a Nigeria-which is where I come from- for instance, living at the very least, in the level of the third industrial revolution; when our democracies truly answer to the people as citizen participation returns power to the people and in the process enable economic growth driven by innovation.
We can expect the proliferation and impact of poverty and diseases to be highly mitigated due to growing research and breakthroughs to provide preventive and curative medicine.
I foresee easier flow of information- education and practical utilization of same on and for the continent. Due to the immense deficit in infrastructure, I predict that the use and need for machines would, contrary to what would obtain elsewhere, create more jobs than it kills- at least for a couple of decades.
We will detect illness quicker and cure faster, we will communicate over long distances, sending live videos across the world in real time, but our relationships will diminished in quality. We will take more interest in their gadgets and technology than our fellow humans; our hearts and souls would be fixated on getting our own selfish targets. Would we then see one another as human beings who commonly share a planet or as competitors who need to fight for increasingly limited resources and isolate others?
Hence, we must define this revolution. We must make deliberate effort to humanize once again from this moment. Technology must be designed to help one another, not replace one another. The ‘lag’ that Africa has suffered for so long can become our advantage as this provides an opportunity to learn from the errors of those who have gone ahead of us.
We will move more easily, think much faster, secure our environments better, indeed have nothing short of a quantum leap yet perhaps most significantly for me, Africa and Africans shall finally cease to be looked upon as objects of charity or recreation.
This is what the Fourth Industrial Revolution means to me.