Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has put his insights for the future of the world into the foreword for The Fourth Industrial Revolution, a book authored by Professor Claus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
“The acceleration of technological changes imposes the need to find integrated solutions and joint efforts by governments and competent institutions and individuals from all around the world,” Shaikh Mohammad said in his foreword.
He emphasised that man’s passion for the future is the driver of development.
“As humanity, we have been and still are passionate about the future, exploring its boundaries and learning about changes. Our curiosity and passion for knowledge prompt us to explore mysterious spaces in the foreseeable future and their impact on our lifestyle and the way we perform our work.” he added.
Shaikh Mohammad said the waves of rapid technological advancements are ushering in a fundamental change that will affect humankind, foremost of which is the future of industries, to the ability to repair damaged tissues using stem cells, and considering technological generation gaps and their impact on education and acquiring knowledge.
Disruptions
In his book, Schwab argues that humankind is at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way of living, work and relate to one another.
He said that previous industrial revolutions, which liberated humankind from animal power, made mass production possible and brought digital capabilities to billions of people. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is, however, fundamentally different. It is characterised by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.
The resulting shifts and disruptions mean that we live in a time of great promise and great peril. The world has the potential to connect billions more people to digital networks, dramatically improve the efficiency of organisations and even manage assets in ways that can help regenerate the natural environment, potentially undoing the damage of previous industrial revolutions, Schwab said in his book.
However, Schwab also has grave concerns: that organisations might be unable to adapt; governments could fail to employ and regulate new technologies to capture their benefits; shifting power will create important new security concerns; inequality may grow; and societies fragment.
