The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Klaus Schwab
Currency/Penguin Random House (2017)

Here are the ways in which technology and society can coexist  — and should — create major benefits for all of us

This is one pf those especially valuable books that create a context, a frame of reference, for an historical period of unique significance. Klaus Schwab focuses on what his book title identifies as a fourth industrial revolution or more accurately referred to as a technology revolution.

Schwab provides background: “The agrarian revolution was followed by a series of industrial revolutions that began in the second half of the 18th century…The first industrial revolution spanned from about 1760 to around 1840…The second industrial revolution, which started in the late-19th centiry and into the early 20th century, made mass production possible, fostered by the advent of electricity and the assembly line. The third industrial revolution  began in the 1960s. It is usually and the computer or digital revolution because it was catalyzed by the development of semiconductors, mainframe computing (1960s), personal computing (1970s and ’80s) and [public access via the Web to] the internet (1990s).”

As he indicates in Chapter 1, he believes that we are now at the beginning of a fourth industrial industrial revolution. “It is characterized by a much more ubiquitous and mobile internet, by smaller and more powerful sensors that have become cheaper, and by artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

Why did Schwab write this book? He cites his three main goals:

1. Increase awareness of the comprehensiveness and speed of the technological revolution and its multifaceted impact

2. Create a framework for thinking about the technological revolution that outlines the core issues and highlights possible responses

3. Provide a platform from which to inspire pubic-private cooperation and partnerships on issues related to the technological revolution

Schwab fully achieves all three goals.

I highly recommend a careful reading and then a rigorous re-reading of the Appendix in which Schwab shares the results of a survey report, “Deep Shift — Technology Tipping Points and Social Impact” published in September 2015. He reproduces 21 technology shifts presented in the study and two additional ones, including the tipping points for these technologies and the dates of their expected arrival to market.”

Thank you, Klaus Schwab, for the abundance of invaluable information, insights, and counsel that you provide in this relatively short book (119 pages plus Appendix). I share your hope that “we can use the fourth industrial revolution to lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. It is incumbent on us all to make sure that the latter is what happens.”