Those two industrial revolutions have created wealth more than ever in the history and made people richer and more urban. Actually we are witnessing the third revolution, with the use of electronics and information technology to automate production.
The world now is looking forward to the 4th one. According to World Economic Forum (WEF) the Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres. According to WEF there are three reasons why today’s transformations represent not merely a prolongation of the Third Industrial Revolution but rather the arrival of a Fourth and distinct one: velocity, scope, and systems impact.
The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance.
In fact it is this evolution which is interesting, because in fact economists had to learn for decades how to integrate new elements at each stage in order to increase “social welfare”. For example the new classical theory was focusing on achieving efficiency, thought maximizing profit. Economic growth was at the top of its objectives, until economists discovered the importance of including another dimension in order to achieve more equal distribution of wealth and income, because achieving economic growth in itself, although essential, is not enough because it does not necessarily mean higher “social welfare”.
Unfortunately, avidity and excessive use of resources to satisfy the unlimited human needs has led to serious damage to the environment; oil spills, desertification, air pollution, disappearance of species as well as the most serious problem of global warming. These phenomena were identified by economists as being direct consequence of the “tragedy of commons”. Economists can actually all agree on the necessity to adopt sustainable development schema, where economic, social and environmental dimensions go hand in hand.
But once again it is no longer enough, because reconciling all the objectives and living in harmony between each other within a healthy environment should integrate the ethical side. Currently rising voices are arguing for the need to take the ethical aspects of economic activities into account. Indeed, the current economic trends that feed the emergence of the so-called fourth industrial revolution that will affect all aspects of our life, especially in view of the knowledge technology and the exacerbation of the role of machines in our lives especially robots, leaves no doubt about the need to determine an ethical frameworks to our economic and industrial activities.
Recently Hebdo Magazine published an article dedicated to the growing role of Google, Facebook, Apple and other knowledge firms in our life titled “Le monde selon Google et Facebook”, which mainly highlights the role of algorithm in our life as they are considered the master of the 4th industrial revolution, with a main question “Do they carry with them the promise of a better world in which robots will free men from work?”. These algorithms produce worlds that depend on the vision of those who created them, i.e. Silicon Valley, even though they are a tool which serves their objectives. Algorithms are even considered an important factor in the political Sector.
The victory of Donald Trump is considered a good example. The algorithms are considered guilty, since they created a biased environment where the information was given to the users in accordance to their preferences which deprive them of the whole image. Hebdo concluded its article by affirming that "the issue of debate is not technical, but rather ethical, political, economic, and philosophical at the same time".
Considering the 4th industrial revolution opens our mind to imagination, imagination would be the key of such revolution if the machine would be our “slave” which will be able to execute our orders. So would this revolution help the producer to know more about the demand by consumers, or inversely would consumers have full information on the type of products, prices, components as well as all the ethical aspects of the production process in one click of the code bar.
So, there is no good or bad technology, the question should be how we can manage this revolution in the right way in order to serve our needs and achieve the social welfare. In fact to answer this question, we should answer the primary questions for the economy: should we be able to choose what to produce, how and for whom, and how can we share the wealth generated by this revolutionary method of production.
If this revolution would attribute roles to machines and electronic systems in order to facilitate the production and distribution, quality control and efficiency, then could men be free from work at last? Or will this be a powerful tool toward a dictatorship of the machine over humans?
The first view does not mean that humanity would have anything to do, but to attribute more time to the most fundamental activities of the human being which distinguish machine from humans; such as spending time with family and friends, meditation and reflection.
In fact, I was inspired from a short story I heard about a taxi driver in London who was confronted by a question of the danger of the new technology on his job. When asked whether he thought that he should find another job if a robot could be introduced into the taxi business, his answer was “then I will take care of my parents”. A very simple answer for a very complex question. But in fact this instinctive answer could be the right one. If machines could do all executive jobs, then what job would be greater than being a human as the robot is in fact a machine, incapable of basic human-like qualities such as emotion and empathy.
Although with the actual available digital revolution, which has allowed the 4th industrial revolution to be inclusive, I am afraid that nothing will change in terms of leadership. Because we need to include micro organizations, mainly small and medium enterprises as well as consumers and individuals, into this process in order to have a role in reshaping our economy, the actual model where multinationals and big companies are doing just this shapes our daily life.
With such revolution we need to enforce the ethical dimension along with economic growth and sustainable development, which will restore the dignity of man as the master of the machine and not the inverse.
Opinions of entrepreneurs:
Abdallah Chatilla, entrepreneur from Geneva.
