The human race has gone through a series of radical innovations in recent centuries, the three industrial revolutions that we know of . First, we harnessed the power of steam and the power of water, then we discovered electricity and created mechanization in the form of factories and assembly lines, changing the nature of our economy overnight.
Since the 1960s, we have seen a shift toward computing, mechatronics, and robotics – the creation of mechanical minds that combine physical, digital, and biological technologies, built to improve our everyday lives.
Today, this change has brought us to the brink of an intelligence boom: Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Virtual Reality, and robotics are here and advancing at an astronomical rate. The next thing … is the fourth industrial revolution. This will multiply the speed, scope and impact of the systems that produced the third (which arrived in the mid-twentieth century with electronics and information technology and telecommunications).
According to Valentin Klímov, Deputy Director of the Institute for Intelligent Cybernetic Systems of the Russian National University for Nuclear Research (MEPhI), a new revolution will take place in the next ten years: neurotechnology, which will drastically change human life.
Man-machine symbiosis?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be characterized by new technologies that connect the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.
Everything is changing as the revolutionary inventions of yesterday seem sad and trivial for future innovations. Nothing is permanent, as we are evolving every day at a rate that multiplies in perpetuity. Artificial intelligence already surrounds us, from autonomous vehicles or drones to virtual assistants and software that help us with multiple tasks.
We are on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to each other, because in this future scenario, human beings and computers will interact as equals and each will solve their own problems, according to Klímov comments.
According to the founder and executive of the World Economic Forum , Klaus Schwab, the fourth industrial revolution is going to have a much greater global impact than previous ones due to advances in technology.
The biggest problem that we face at the root of this technological change is that we will not be willing to adapt. The fear of the loss of our jobs and the uncertainty in the face of the new jobs that will be created in the future -as has happened in every industrial revolution-, plays against it. We must bear in mind that the change is there, it is happening in these very moments and, while we are sitting at our desks at work, we must prepare for a society that is constantly changing.
And let’s not forget that technological advances have created more jobs than they have destroyed , according to a study published by The Society of Business Economists. Instead of destroying jobs, technology has been a “great job-creating machine.”
“The machines will take on more repetitive and laborious tasks, but they do not seem to be closer to eliminating the need for human labor than at any time in the last 150 years,” the work concludes.
Referencia: Conferencia Neuroinformática 2017 Moscú / World Economic Forum / The Society of Business Economist The Rybczynski Prize
