Industrial Revolution v.4.0

[airiefairie]

Something big seems to be coming up. Is it possible that we are at the threshold of a technological revolution that would entirely overhaul the way we live, work and communicate? Many experts and analysts believe that this is indeed the case. To such an extent that the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution has become one of the key topics of the

Comments

[johnny9fingers]

Can Milady have a recommended, please?

Because this is something we all need to think about.

[dreamville_bg]

Yes. Good read.

[airiefairie]

Thanks.

[mahnmut]

Sure thing.

[luzribeiro]

I wonder if humankind, once it gets ensnared into its own trap by creating an AI that eventually surpasses us in capabilities and figures it's more efficient from its standpoint to have us either enslaved or eradicated, would suddenly arrive at the realization that Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates were not "technophobes", but actually just bad prophets.

[nairiporter]

It's all fun and games - until it isn't. :-)

[yes_justice]

[airiefairie]

=)

[garote]

A revolution of this magnitude is already well underway. The first huge step happened about 15 years ago, post dot-com boom, and the second happened about five years ago, with the rise of the smartphone. But the fact that there are points of accelerated change - steps - should be a clue that this revolution will be long, bumpy, and create many losers along the way.

Question: What makes you say this:

"... in 2020 it will be irrelevant, since machines using vast data massifs will be able to take the decision-making tasks from the hands of the top management."

I mean, that's less than four years from now. Top management leverages information and advice from underlings and partners all the time, all drawing from software services that aspire to what you describe. You're saying in four years top management itself will be replaced by analytics software?

[mikeyxw]

"I mean, that's less than four years from now. Top management leverages information and advice from underlings and partners all the time, all drawing from software services that aspire to what you describe. You're saying in four years top management itself will be replaced by analytics software?"

It's almost like those folks who predict the future are making this stuff up.

[airiefairie]

What I am saying is that the conclusions made by these researchers are placing a horizon as narrow as 2020, yes. It may not happen exactly that way, or conversely, not within a time period as short as that one, but the idea is already being considered quite seriously.

[garote]

From the linked article:

"... Basically, the system allows a user to drag-and-drop “virtual assembly lines” into place, and run them from a dashboard. ... But could iCEO manage actual work projects for our organization? After a few practice runs, we were ready to find out. For one task, we programmed iCEO to oversee the preparation of a 124-page research report ..."Every couple of months, somewhere on the planet, some acolyte programmer or frustrated employer of programmers comes up with the bright idea that they could solve the problem of software development once and for all if they just built a set of software tools that management could use on their own, to describe their needs to the computer and have the computer do the work

[anfalicious]

I bet one of the topics at the summit will be "how do we deal with the plebs when there are no jobs for them".

I'm concerned about this next industrial revolution taking place under capitalism. Unless the roboticisation of the workforce happens under a collectively owned means of production a few people are going to get really wealthy and the rest of us will be left with nothing. I have little hope the capitalist masters will appreciate that without anyone to buy there is no market place, we can look to what's happened in the US in the last 40 years to see that.

[mahnmut]

how do we deal with the plebs when there are no jobs for them

There'll always be the Matrix for that.

[garote]

Fun note: the Waxhowskis originally scripted that humans were used by computers as additional processing power, then changed it to battery power because they figured the general public wouldn't understand.

Nowadays I bet the general public would :D

In a way, we're already all extensions of the computing power of machines... We don't even need virtual reality to convince us it's a good way to live.

(And isn't it?)

[mahnmut]

I remember something about the first computer consisting of dozens of women sitting on some desks with a pencil and paper in hand.