THE FOUR BIG DISRUPTIONS
It’s a term used often these days but many people don’t know what 4IR stands for. Simply put, it’s the latest period that marks a disruption leading to significant change in the way the world works – in other words, a revolution of various types of industries. In recent history we’ve had three industrial revolutions.
◼ The first industrial revolution came in the 1700s in Europe and America through steam engines. With the introduction of steam engines, people, goods and services could be transported much faster. At the time many people lived in rural areas and worked in farming. With the introduction of the steam engine, more people moved to urban areas.
◼ The second industrial revolution took place in the 1800s in Europe, America and Asia. It was driven by the invention of electricity and the improvement of assembly lines in factories. These changes made it possible for mass production of goods such as cars.
◼ The third industrial revolution, also known as the digital revolution, saw the introduction in the 1970s of electronics and computers and later the arrival of the internet.
◼ The fourth industrial revolution is still taking place, developing what happened in the third but taking it further. Key in this one are the introduction of robotics, automation, 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), genetic engineering, quantum computing and much more. A lot of these technologies are quite intelligent and don’t need humans to operate them.
The term 4IR was coined by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in an article he wrote in 2015. “Already, artificial intelligence is all around us, from self-driving cars and drones to virtual assistants and software that translates or invests,” he wrote.
“Impressive progress has been made in AI in recent years, driven by exponential increases in computing power and by the availability of vast amounts of data, from software used to discover new drugs to algorithms used to predict our cultural interests.”
The 4IR, he continued, is “characterised by a fusion of technologies that’s blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres”.