The Fourth Industrial Revolution was written in 2016 by Klaus Schwab and on its face it seems relatively benign. In the foreword, Klaus plainly states on page vii “These rapid advances in technology, however, are doing more than providing us with new capabilities - they are changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another.” I don’t think anyone would disagree with that statement, and therefore the book seems almost gentle in its approach....
It’s clear Klaus has a vision what he wants that society to look like, on page 9 he states: “The premise of this book is that technology and digitization will revolutionize everything, making the overused and often ill-used adage ‘this time it’s different’ apt.” Given our hyper connected world, I’d say he is probably right, but he fails to consider that all of this digitization he touts is based on things that physically exist and allow digitization to happen....
On page 21, Klaus tells us, “Synthetic biology is the next step. It will provide us with the ability to customize organisms by writing DNA.” I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a problem this is. Humans are effectively playing God. Again, globalists make it sound great. They talk about how it will help medicine and provide individualized protocols for health and all that good stuff. Page 22...
Page 67 is where is gets good, it’s titled National and Global. Here, he discusses how governments need to adapt to the fourth industrial revolution. As with the theme of everything we are doing or want to do is positive, Klaus tells us on page 68: “Technology will increasingly enable citizens, providing a new way to voice their opinions, coordinate their efforts and possibly circumvent government supervision.” "… the opposite might just as well be true, with new surveillance technologies giving rise to the all-too-powerful public authorities....
Curious, how Klaus brings up those old notions in the Communist Manifesto of no nations. He doesn’t outright say it, but: “What will define the roles that countries, regions, and cities play in the fourth industrial revolution?”(71) That in and of itself is nothing earth shattering, but a little further down he states: “… one thing is clear and of great importance: the countries and regions that succeed in establishing tomorrow’s preferred international norms in the main categories and fields of the new digital economy … will reap considerable economic and financial benefits....
Klaus paints a very rosy picture of how all of this technology will make things easier, faster, and more ubiquitous. He mentions things like ISIS just to be balanced, but the book really isn’t balanced in that regard. He tells us that “a key theme of this book, unpredictable dynamics inherently surface, challenging existing legal and ethical frameworks” (88) From what I’ve read, key themes seem to be technology is great, it can do a lot of things for us that are beneficial regardless of the social, ethical, and political ramifications....