The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab: Physical

The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab

2.1.1 Physical

There are four main physical manifestations of the technological megatrends, which are the easiest to see because of their tangible nature:

– autonomous vehicles

– 3D printing

– advanced robotics

– new materials

Autonomous vehicles

The driverless car dominates the news but there are now many other autonomous vehicles including trucks, drones, aircrafts and boats. As technologies such as sensors and artificial intelligence progress, the capabilities of all these autonomous machines improve at a rapid pace. It is only a question of a few years before low-cost, commercially available drones, together with submersibles, are used in different applications. As drones become capable of sensing and responding to their environment (altering their flight path to avoid collisions), they will be able to do tasks such as checking electric power lines or delivering medical supplies in war zones. In agriculture, the use of drones – combined with data analytics – will enable more precise and efficient use of fertilizer and water, for example.

3D printing

Also called additive manufacturing, 3D printing consists of creating a physical object by printing layer upon layer from a digital 3D drawing or model. This is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing, which is how things have been made until now, with layers being removed from a piece of material until the desired shape is obtained. By contrast, 3D printing starts with loose material and then builds an object into a three-dimensional shape using a digital template. The technology is being used in a broad range of applications, from large (wind turbines) to small (medical implants). For the moment, it is primarily limited to applications in the automotive, aerospace and medical industries. Unlike mass-produced manufactured goods, 3D-printed products can be easily customized. As current size, cost and speed constraints are progressively overcome, 3D printing will become more pervasive to include integrated electronic components such as circuit boards and even human cells and organs. Researchers are already working on 4D, a process that would create a new generation of self-altering products capable of responding to environmental changes such as heat and humidity. This technology could be used in clothing or footwear, as well as in healthrelated products such as implants designed to adapt to the human body.

Advanced robotics

Until recently, the use of robots was confined to tightly controlled tasks in specific industries such as automotive. Today, however, robots are increasingly used across all sectors and for a wide range of tasks from precision agriculture to nursing. Rapid progress in robotics will soon make collaboration between humans and machines an everyday reality. Moreover, because of other technological advances, robots are becoming more adaptive and flexible, with their structural and functional design inspired by complex biological structures (an extension of a process called biomimicry, whereby nature’s patterns and strategies are imitated). Advances in sensors are enabling robots to understand and respond better to their environment and to engage in a broader variety of tasks such as household chores. Contrary to the past when they had to be programmed through an autonomous unit, robots can now access information remotely via the cloud and thus connect with a network of other robots. When the next generation of robots emerges, they will likely reflect an increasing emphasis on human-machine collaboration. In Chapter Three, I will explore the ethical and psychological questions raised by human-machine relations.

New materials

With attributes that seemed unimaginable a few years ago, new materials are coming to market. On the whole, they are lighter, stronger, recyclable and adaptive. There are now applications for smart materials that are selfhealing or self-cleaning, metals with memory that revert to their original shapes, ceramics and crystals that turn pressure into energy, and so on. Like many innovations of the fourth industrial revolution, it is hard to know where developments in new materials will lead. Take advanced nanomaterials such as graphene, which is about 200-times stronger than steel, a million-times thinner than a human hair, and an efficient conductor of heat and electricity. [Note: David Isaiah, “Automotive grade graphene: the clock is ticking”, Automotive World, 26 August 2015; http://www.automotiveworld.com/analysis/automotive-grade-graphene-clock-ticking/]. When graphene becomes price competitive (gram for gram, it is one of the most expensive materials on earth, with a micrometersized flake costing more than $1,000), it could significantly disrupt the manufacturing and infrastructure industries. [Note: Sarah Laskow, “The Strongest, Most Expensive Material on Earth”, The Atlantic; http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/the-strongest-most-expensive-material-onearth/380601/]. It could also profoundly affect countries that are heavily reliant on a particular commodity. Other new materials could play a major role in mitigating the global risks we face. New innovations in thermoset plastics, for example, could make reusable materials that have been considered nearly impossible to recycle but are used in everything from mobile phones and circuit boards to aerospace industry parts. The recent discovery of new classes of recyclable thermosetting polymers called polyhexahydrotriazines (PHTs) is a major step towards the circular economy, which is regenerative by design and works by decoupling growth and resource needs. [Note: Some of the technologies are described in greater detail in: Bernard Meyerson, “Top 10 Technologies of 2015”, Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies, World Economic Forum, 4 March 2015; https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/03/top-10-emerging-technologies-of-2015-2/]