Industry 4.0, more commonly referred to us as The Fourth Industrial Revolution, will be the central topic of this year's 46th annual World Economic Forum in Davos. Top CEOs like Microsoft's Satya Nadella and General Motors' Mary Barra will be spearheading these discussions.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is essentially the technological singularity--a rapid cumulation of technologies in the physical, digital and biological world. We are at the beginning of the arc of Industry 4.0's exponential curve; the effects of this growth on global unemployment and income inequality will be profound.
There are early signs of this with technologies like Uber, which generates over 50,000 jobs a month. These jobs provide gainful employment to many, but will soon be replaced by self-driving cars; Uber is heavily invested in this technology, and President Obama has pledged $4 billion dollars towards accelerating its development. Mercedes-Benz's first self-driving truck has already hit the road, and it is only a matter of time before autonomous cargo ships sail our oceans.
A recent report from the World Bank reveals that the rapid spread of technologies has not expanded opportunities for the world's poor. In fact, the opposite is taking place: those who are well off are accelerating their wealth and living standards even more thanks to these technologies, while those who are less fortunate lag behind. This becomes very problematic as our global population starts living longer with the advancement of life expansion drugs.
The key question then becomes: how do our political, social and economic systems adjust for the paradoxical cannibalism of Industry 4.0? A first step towards inclusive growth in Industry 4.0 is President Obama's recent vision for worker's wage insurance in light of America's declining middle-class wages. It works as a fail-safe option, compensating workers who have been retrained for new jobs but can't yet make ends meet.
Politically, we are seeing the rise of more extreme candidates and groups on all sides of the spectrum, all across the globe, while economically decentralized digital assets like BitCoin are popping up. BitCoin's very own "blockchain" technology could one day be the bridge for the internet of things, keeping a track of virtual objects and their real world counterparts.
Perhaps one of the biggest keys to inclusive growth in The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be the cultural redefinition of what it means to be wealthy. The concept of ownership will be a thing of the past; this is already evident in the new sharing economy, seen in the rise of companies like AirBnb, Spotify, Netflix, and Uber. We will no longer need to own our own cars, books, music and even housing with the rise of micro-apartments and co-living spaces.
Technologies like the hyperloop, advancements in artificial intelligence, deep space exploration and eventually colonization will all be some of the highlights of Industry 4.0. Our era will be marked by extreme instability, and accurate predictions of the future are nearly impossible. What is certain, however, is that we will emerge as a more globalized civilization, unlike anything humanity has seen before.
For the second conversation in our Purpose@Work series -- a discussion designed to explore how we can infuse a deep sense of purpose into our work -- we're going to focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the theme of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos.
How are you using technology to elevate purpose in your organization, community, or project? Let us know at PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #PurposeAtWork.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution is essentially the technological singularity--a rapid cumulation of technologies in the physical, digital and biological world. We are at the beginning of the arc of Industry 4.0's exponential curve; the effects of this growth on global unemployment and income inequality will be profound.
There are early signs of this with technologies like Uber, which generates over 50,000 jobs a month. These jobs provide gainful employment to many, but will soon be replaced by self-driving cars; Uber is heavily invested in this technology, and President Obama has pledged $4 billion dollars towards accelerating its development. Mercedes-Benz's first self-driving truck has already hit the road, and it is only a matter of time before autonomous cargo ships sail our oceans.
A recent report from the World Bank reveals that the rapid spread of technologies has not expanded opportunities for the world's poor. In fact, the opposite is taking place: those who are well off are accelerating their wealth and living standards even more thanks to these technologies, while those who are less fortunate lag behind. This becomes very problematic as our global population starts living longer with the advancement of life expansion drugs.
The key question then becomes: how do our political, social and economic systems adjust for the paradoxical cannibalism of Industry 4.0? A first step towards inclusive growth in Industry 4.0 is President Obama's recent vision for worker's wage insurance in light of America's declining middle-class wages. It works as a fail-safe option, compensating workers who have been retrained for new jobs but can't yet make ends meet.
Politically, we are seeing the rise of more extreme candidates and groups on all sides of the spectrum, all across the globe, while economically decentralized digital assets like BitCoin are popping up. BitCoin's very own "blockchain" technology could one day be the bridge for the internet of things, keeping a track of virtual objects and their real world counterparts.
Perhaps one of the biggest keys to inclusive growth in The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be the cultural redefinition of what it means to be wealthy. The concept of ownership will be a thing of the past; this is already evident in the new sharing economy, seen in the rise of companies like AirBnb, Spotify, Netflix, and Uber. We will no longer need to own our own cars, books, music and even housing with the rise of micro-apartments and co-living spaces.
Technologies like the hyperloop, advancements in artificial intelligence, deep space exploration and eventually colonization will all be some of the highlights of Industry 4.0. Our era will be marked by extreme instability, and accurate predictions of the future are nearly impossible. What is certain, however, is that we will emerge as a more globalized civilization, unlike anything humanity has seen before.
For the second conversation in our Purpose@Work series -- a discussion designed to explore how we can infuse a deep sense of purpose into our work -- we're going to focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the theme of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos.
How are you using technology to elevate purpose in your organization, community, or project? Let us know at PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #PurposeAtWork.
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