Industrial 4.0 — Revolution via Connection
Integrate Technologies, Connect People, Enrich Lives, Improve the World
Carly Chen LI
Throughout human history, each Industrial Revolution epitomized the essence and collaborative effort of innovation and entrepreneurship, and elevated our civilization to a new stage of productivity and prosperity. The Industrial 4.0, currently underway, is ready to transform our society in a profound, lasting way.
How is Industrial 4.0 going to enrich our lives and improve the world? Through integration and connection. Industrial 4.0 will connect not only technology + human, but also technology + technology, and human + human.
- Technology + Human
To begin with, Industrial 4.0 will bring us various cyber-physical technologies that allow us gain knowledge and experience, unprecedentedly. For example, it could help people in underprivileged communities and countries to connect to the bigger world. In my home country China, students from rural areas and lower-class families typically lack sufficient educational resources and cannot afford traveling. However, with technologies and charity donations of learning equipment, these students could get a fairer chance: Learn from top institutions on MOOCs (Coursera, Edx, etc.), “visit” attractions around the world through Virtual Reality headsets and Google Sightseeing. Top research institutions are also developing technologies that will allow people not only be able to see and hear from computers but also to smell and touch, making the virtual experience more multi-dimensional and vivid. These cyber-physical immersions will help these people alleviate the knowledge/experience deficiency, make them more contributive to the world.
Advanced robotics is another game-changing technology: Robot police will patrol late at night and on holidays to safeguard our communities; robot waiters will serve us 24*365; and robots will perform dangerous tasks in harsh areas to increase the GDP without causing injuries. We will live in a safer, more convenient and prosperous society.
2. Technology + Technology
By standing on the shoulders of giants, Industrial 4.0 will fuse the best of past, current and future technologies, resulting in powerful, “1+1 > 2” technologies.
For example, the Internet of Things + 3D Printing + Car Connectivity + Driverless Cars will bring us unique-looking, smart cars that remember our seating and music preferences, communicate with other cars, drive automatically to free up our hands and minds, and choose the best routes based on real-time traffics. Having lived in big cities like San Francisco, Shanghai and Vancouver, I can foresee how these smart cars would greatly improve our commute experience and increase our wellbeing: less traffic accident, less road congestion, more time to be spent on productive work, and more enjoyable road trips!
In the field of healthcare, Artificial Intelligence + Big Data + Virtual Reality + Advanced Robotics will transform diagnostics and surgical treatments. Top doctors could see patients all over the world through virtual reality, and leverage big data to accurately pinpoint the symptoms and prescriptions, smart robots with artificial intelligence will be able to perform surgeries under the guidance of experts. Meanwhile, Biotechnology + Material Science + 3D Printing would be enable people to identify pathological causes on a molecular level, cure diseases by repairing genes, and produce medicines that are absorbed more efficiently. Such revolutions would improve our health and longevity, and would address the worldwide shortage of doctors and effective medicines.
At a more advanced stage, artificial intelligence itself may also be able to create and link new technologies that benefit the world, planting seeds for Industrial 5.0.
3. Human + Human
Industrial 4.0 will also nurture human + human connection. While Industrial 3.0 (email, social network and instant message) has tremendously facilitated communication by reducing the lag of info transmission and breaking geo-barriers, Industrial 4.0 will further enhance human-human bonding. Virtual and augmented reality would allow us to communicate more complexed information over the devices, whereas quantum computing and fiber optics-backed infrastructure will have increased capacity of information processing and transmission, enabling real-time, no-lag communications. This will benefit me immensely as I will be able to share joy and pain with my parents in Shanghai and friends in Sydney, New York, Tokyo, Paris as if I were teleported there and with them. Business professionals including myself will also have less long-distance business trips, saving hours of travel time and energy for more productive work.
Moreover, the sharing ecosystems will connect various users and owners, thus making resources (car, housing, etc.) more efficient and reachable. From car-sharing systems such as Uber to P2P platforms like LendingClub, multiple users could be connected to access (without having to own) one resource in a cost-effective manner. Through collective utilization and redistribution of resources, people in resource-scarce communities will gain productivity and enjoy higher standards of life that they could never afford before, whilst people with spare resources could make extra income.
To summarize, Industrial 4.0 is about: integrate technologies, connect people, enrich lives, and improve the world.
Of course, there needs to be thoughtful rules to prevent the misuse of technologies. After all, Industrial 4.0 is all for human, by human. Academia, think tanks, businesses from various industries, governments, and NGO organizations will collaborate to design, make, implement, impact and improve the movement, for ourselves and our loved ones. I am very optimistic and excited about Industrial 4.0, and thrilled to witness and participate in it.
