How will the Fourth Industrial Revolution Impact our Societies?
As a social scientist with background in political history and economics, I find it amusing to compare current events to things that have happened in the past. Only through understanding history are we able to grasp how things change.
In the beginning of the 17th century, Great Britain and especially London went through an unbelievable transition. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, improved efficiency of water power and the rise of the factory system. The change was so extensive, that it is hard to imagine how quickly it affected the people of London and other cities. According to economists, the Industrial Revolution had a major impact on the standard of living for the general population. For the first time in history the standard of living started to increase for everyone in Great Britain.
Even if the new technologies were revolutionary innovations of their own time, the development of the 17th century is nothing compared to today’s world.
200 years later we are building intelligence exhibited by machines. We are building more powerful machines than anyone ever thought would be possible. We are ready to use genetic engineering in order to change the genetic makeup of cells in ways that have never been seen before. The speed of new technologies and their development is hard to grasp. Technology grows exponentially.
We are at the edge of the 4th Industrial Revolution, already entering a new stage and time that is not equivalent to anything seen in the human history before. According to futurist Ray Kurzweil, we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).
This is the reason why the Fourth Industrial Revolution was also selected as the main topic of Davos 2017 this year. The political and economic elite of the world gathered to Switzerland in January to discuss this rapid change. According to Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum the response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society. I couldn’t agree more. Both the public and private sectors and the civil society need the necessary tools and knowledge to make the most out of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
We need this revolution to solve the biggest problems of our time: how to save 800 million people from chronic hunger, how to ensure clean water for 2,5 billion people that don’t have it today, how to tackle climate change, how to provide basic health care for 1 billion people. These are just some of the issues that affect our planet and people today.
I was excited to attend the Davos Studio in Helsinki and a panel discussion regarding the 4th Industrial Revolution from the work life perspective. We discussed with Petri Vilen, the CEO of Industryhack and Ilkka Kivimäki, partner at Inventure and Chairman at Slush, the skills and necessary mind-set that will be needed to approach this new time of human history.
First and foremost, we have to educate the younger generations with necessary skills. Technology shouldn’t be seen as something that you can’t build yourself. It should be seen as a tool and an approachable part of life that you really can have an affect on. It should be accentuated that everyone, and not just current experts, can participate in creating technologies.
The second thing is attitude. We have to find encouragement in our current societies towards entrepreneurship and maker-culture. The 4th Industrial Revolution is building countless possibilities within emerging technologies such as AI, robotics, Internet of Things, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy storage and autonomous vehicles just to name a few. We have to make the most out these opportunities and build sustainable and impactful solutions that can help people on a global scale. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to improve the quality of life for people around the world.
I highly recommend this video by World Economic Forum.
“It is this ability of digital technology to change outcomes and truly empower people around the world that can create a more equitable growth, because I think the world really needs that.”
The writer is part of Global Millenial Bloggers. More updates from Millenial Bloggers on Facebook.
