Revolution 4.0 and the Man of Tomorrow

Revolution 4.0  and the Man of Tomorrow 

We stand on the brink of an era that will see changes never before in mankind. A Fourth Industrial Revolution, better called Revolution 4.0, is a road to unknown destinations. In this fantastic essay you are about to finish now, we have gone through historical and economical events that have catapulted mankind from agrarian societies to space travelers. The changes that have happened over the last 200 years have been faster and more accelerated than all of mankind’s history together. It sounds CRAZY, but most of our future has been predicted by writers. Jules Verne imagined man reaching the Moon already in his 1865 novel “From Earth to Moon”. In his 1948 novel “1984”, George Orwell imagined a utopic society were citizens are under the constant surveillance of a totalitarian state (going so far as of accusing them of thought criminals). In the 1950s, Isaac Asimov created a galactic future in his “Foundation series”, and predicted Artificial Intelligence in his “Robot series”. As strange as it sounds, many of mankind’s inventions are based on science fiction novels. It makes sense, before building a rocket and sending it into space you actually have to be crazy enough to imagine that it is possible to do so.   If you really do know about world history, you will rapidly understand that countries and regions have changed dramatically. However, no political or economic system has ever been able to “change things”. 

“The big changer” in the last 200 years has been the Industrial Revolution [1]. Before that, people lived closed to the land they worked for a living. Life expectancy never rose over 35 years old; education was a privilege, not a right; weapons did not kill more than a dozen people and the fastest transportation on land was a horse. The fantastic lifestyle that we have today we owe to the Industrial Revolution. Europe, and mainly Britain, led this revolution. Consider that before the Industrial Revolution China was predominant in world commerce for a period of a 1000 years. The Chinese invented gunpowder, printing, paper money, had fantastic writing skills and led world exports. It is clear that the Chinese have had a long tradition at innovation.  The transition from agrarian to industrialized societies happened between 1760 to 1840, in what was known as “the First Industrial Revolution”. Hand production methods were replaced by machines (mechanical production equipment). Manpower was replaced by water, steam and coal. Textile was the dominant industry. The British had the advantage of huge reserves of coal. The Industrial Revolution was about using different sources of energy to automate production. They also had the highest wages in the region, so they had to look towards machines to cut production costs. The standard of living was awful, the cities many times stinking like sewers. 

The Second Industrial Revolution [2], also known as Technological Revolution, extended from the 1870s to 1914 (before the breakout of WW1). The railroad system, gas and water supplies, large-scale iron and steel production, widespread use of machinery in manufacturing, and the beginning of the use of oil and electricity. This was the era of great inventions: automobiles, chemicals, railroads, telegraph, telephone, radio. Machinery replaced human power, with massive job losses in the agrarian sector. Increased automation meant less and less human effort (mass production). People started moving to the cities, were unemployment (and poverty) soared. Before, it was typical that families had 10 children to work the land. Now, families became overcrowded. There was not enough work for everyone. Massive migration to America characterized this period, with USA as the 1st destination and Argentina as the 2nd.  

The Third Industrial Revolution [3] started in the 1960s and focused on electronics and information technology (automated production). Now, consider that usually this period is considered part of the 2nd industrial revolution, but I will agree with the authors that separate it from that period due to the major impact the Space Age has had on our lives. The Space Race gave us many innovations that impact us today, even if we might not be aware of that. The 1960s gave way to a period of awesome inventions, which we take for granted today: the halogen lamp, the first computer, the audio cassette, BASIC computer programing language, the RAM chip, the ATM machine. Not to mention color TV, Video-player (which killed the radio star), the CD player… Can you imagine your life without all of these technologies today? I most certainly can’t!!! 

Finally, the Fourth Industrial Revolution [4], or Revolution 4.0, changes the game completely. Is it possible now with only a laptop computer and connection to internet to become a manufacturer and to make a profit doing so. Clever software, new production processes and 3D printing are making it as easier as ever to be an entrepreneur. Anyone can now dream up a design and see it come to reality within days, at a small fraction of the traditional cost. The impact will be profound. This revolution is evolving exponentially as opposed to linearly and it is disrupting every industry in every country. Breakthroughs are being made in areas as diverse as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing.    The rise of inequality remains as the greatest fear, and challenge for this revolution. Consider that, as it happened in the 2nd Industrial Revolution, a large part of the workforce will now be automated. Check the article “Half of all British jobs could be replaced by robots over the next two decades”. [5] Whereas before the low-end jobs were the most likely to be replaced, this revolution affects skilled jobs as well. Doctors, accountants, lawyers, business people are all at risk now. Repetitive, monotonous work will most likely be automated. This is not a bad thing though. A doctor will not need to use so much of his time on administrative tasks, and will have more free capacity to dedicate to his patients. In the same way, accountants, programmers and IT consultants will take the higher end of the curve: more time for analysis and customer relationships than before. De-centralization will also become a fact. Whereas in the 2nd industrial revolution people moved from the countryside to cities to look for work, “remote job” will make it possible for people to move to the countryside once more. This will be great for small cities development, and as well for global commuters who will not have a clear area of residence. However, some countries will be better at adopting new technologies than others. Nothing will be gained by fighting against it. Ideally, nations (meaning  governments but the private sector as well), should take the lead in these developments. Automation, however painful it might be, is a necessary evil. By rapidly implementing new technologies first, the product or service can be tested and improved to conquer other markets and nations. The countries that resist change, will find themselves on a rapid slide towards underdevelopment. A rearrange of world power is at our door. Things will look completely different in a just 20-year period. Which countries will take the lead? Which nations will position themselves to take us to space, and which will be condemned to a terrene life? Will Europe (and the US) be able to sustain it’s privileges, in a world with free access to resources and information?

Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution, the future is HERE!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Industrial_Revolution 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Age 
http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-andhow-to-respond 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of-england/11991704/Half-of-all-British-jobs-could-bereplaced-by-robots-warns-Bank-of-Englands-chief-economist.html