Business

4IR: don’t believe the hype

The problem with buzzwords is that they make things look a lot simpler and less painless than they ultimately are.

11 November 2019

The ingredients and effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are real. There is indeed a change happening, facilitated by the extension of digital technologies into the analogue world. Sensors channel information through virtual computers, then deposit it into nearby devices for consumption and action.

This is the sci-fi dream – the Star Trek reality – where computers do all the mundane heavy lifting so we can do the exciting heavy lifting. That dream is real enough. But not the road we see leading towards it. This road is what we call the Fourth Industrial Revolution – and it’s a load of simplified nonsense.

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