According to Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the 4-IR follows the first, second, and third Industrial Revolutions—the mechanical, electrical, and digital, respectively. The 4-IR builds on the digital revolution, but Schwab sees the 4-IR as an exponential takeoff and convergence of existing and emerging fields, including Big Data; artificial intelligence; machine learning; quantum computing; and genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics. The consequence is the merging of the physical, digital, and biological worlds. The blurring of these categories ultimately challenges the very ontologies by which we understand ourselves and the world, including “what it means to be human.”
The specific applications that make up the 4-R are too numerous and sundry to treat in full, but they include a ubiquitous internet, the internet of things, the internet of bodies, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and more.
While Schwab and the WEF promote a particular vision for the 4-IR, the developments he announces are not his brainchildren, and there is nothing original about his formulations. Transhumanists and Singularitarians (or prophets of the technological singularity), such as Ray Kurzweil and many others, forecasted these and more revolutionary developments,. long before Schwab heralded them. The significance of Schwab and the WEF’s take on the new technological revolution is the attempt to harness it to a particular end, presumably “a fairer, greener future.”
Physicists have created a modem for the quantum internet of the future, giving powerful quantum computers a way to share information.
Adding another dimension to the Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk rivalry.
Amazon will launch the first two of its Project Kuiper internet satellites in the fourth quarter of 2,022 in a bid to tap the market for internet satellite constellations, a press statement from the delivery giant reveals.
Amazon announced Project Kuiper last week, alongside a partnership with Verizon, which will provide its telecommunications expertise. The two firms are following in the footsteps of SpaceX’… See more.
Yahoo has shut down access to its services in China, becoming the latest American tech company to exit the country.
It pulled the plug “in recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment,” a Yahoo spokesperson said in a statement.
“Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support.”
The change occurs as SpaceX prepares for a nationwide rollout of Starlink before the end of the month.
Google has been building a network to connect its data centers for two decades. Now it’s coming in handy for a cloud deal with SpaceX.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced the parent company’s name is being changed to “Meta” to represent a future beyond just its troubled social network.
The new handle comes as the social media giant tries to fend off one its worst crises yet and pivot to its ambitions for the “metaverse” virtual reality version of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will keep their names under the rebranding.
Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID), a retailer of luxury EVs as well as advanced battery tech, stands to gain quite a lot should it manage to win a lucrative Saudi contract.
As per an interview by the CEO of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea project as well as the Amaala luxury tourism initiative, John Pagano, the Kingdom is looking to build “the largest battery storage system in the world.” The video embedded in the tweet below is in English.
Project Cielo: AORUS Newest Modular PC With Integrated 5G Connectivity In a Unusual Design.