The Fourth Industrial Revolution will be characterized by the digitalization and interconnection of all physical elements and infrastructure controlled by both humans and advanced intelligent systems. This will build on the developments of the Third Industrial Revolution, and will ultimately impact all sectors – energy, transport, health, manufacturing, education, and more – and will affect global value chains across the physical, digital and biological domains.
What makes the Fourth Industrial Revolution fundamentally different from the previous ones is the interconnectedness of all the different elements, and the unprecedented speed at which innovation and the diffusion of technology are taking place.
If properly addressed, the Fourth Industrial Revolution can have strong positive economic, social and environmental impacts. However, concerns are being expressed about just how much control humans would be ceding to machines. Therefore, in addition to provide a clear understanding of the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for society, comprehensively thought-out measures are required to mitigate any risks.
Nokia recently released white paper on IoT and other burgeoning tech issues, “Preparing society for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”