The Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Age of Intelligence

This subject is better known by those interested in the production lines, from economists to engineers, since it is a phenomenon that intrigues them and fascinates to study, being born their interest to know their origin, behavior and manipulation. On this occasion we will make a brief explanation of the event hidden behind the screens, the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Background

To understand this topic efficiently, you have to expose the context that revolves in its history, explaining to begin with what is an Industrial Revolution:

"During the industrial revolution per capita income increases, and not just the gross domestic product. The forms of production are modified, by using machines, distribution and market. The increase in per capita income implies new uses of income and a change in the composition of demand, which imply a transformation in the social value system. The industrial revolution means the end of subsistence crises due to lack, or increase, of the labor force "- John Maynard Keynes.

This definition is used because it is the most accepted in economic terms, given that it is the closest to reality and chronologically. It should be noted that basically expresses an irreversible change in the forms of production, causing impacts on the economies of the countries.

First Industrial Revolution

It began in England in 1786 with the application of steam engines in the production media.

Second Industrial Revolution

It is England, Western Europe, the USA and Japan that between 1870 and the first world war were characterized in this revolution, which consisted of the inventions associated with electricity, starting with the electric light bulb, the radio and the internal combustion car.

Third Industrial Revolution

It emerged in the last 30 years of the twentieth century and boosted aviation, the space age, atomic energy, cybernetics, personal computers and information technology to automate production, the Internet.

The Fourth Revolution: Intelligence

"The fourth industrial revolution, is not defined by a set of emerging technologies in themselves, but by the transition to new systems that are built on the infrastructure of the digital revolution (previous)" - Schwab, executive director of the World Economic Forum ( WEF in English).

This phenomenon was discussed as a central theme in the 2016 global economic forum, being described as the application of the Internet to the industry in the handling of products, using digitization, Information Technology (IT), and smart devices, connecting networks, communicating machines, adapting services to customers anywhere in the world.

"There are three reasons why current transformations do not represent an extension of the third industrial revolution, but the arrival of a different one: speed, scope and impact on systems. The speed of current advances is unprecedented in history ... And is interfering in almost all industries in all countries, "says the WEF.
Representative technologies

Among the technologies that are being associated with this industrial revolution, it should be noted that they are considered as disruptive to all, meaning not only that they generated an irreversible change, they also imply that they were spontaneous.

The first ones would be the ones that are not so news at the moment, being the 3D Printing, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Robotization in Production, Drone Works, Artificial Intelligence and, Information Technologies. You can observe its impacts by observing the variety of our news on these topics, so we invite you to follow us constantly.

An added recently is characteristic for us, being the famous Blockchain, added by its impacts in the immense amount of markets, which are adapting to not back down to the change.

It is discussed if the cryptocurrencies should be added, but the reasons for not doing so is that they are a branch of Blockchain and, have not generated a radical change yet.

Curious fact

Something curious is the response of entrepreneurs when they were interviewed in the mentioned forum, being the person in charge of the survey the Global Barometer of Innovation.

70% of executives have positive expectations
85% believe that innovations in cyber-physical systems will be beneficial
64% are willing to take the risks of innovating
17% fear for the negative impact on workers