Page 105 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution
P. 105
With effective multistakeholder cooperation, I am convinced that the fourth
industrial revolution has the potential to address – and possibly solve – the
major challenges that the world currently faces.
In the end, it comes down to people, culture and values. Indeed, we need to
work very hard to ensure that all citizens across cultures, nations and
income groups understand the need to master the fourth industrial revolution
and its civilizational challenges.
Let us together shape a future that works for all by putting people first,
empowering them and constantly reminding ourselves that all of these new
technologies are first and foremost tools made by people for people.
Let us therefore take collective responsibility for a future where innovation
and technology are centred on humanity and the need to serve the public
interest, and ensure that we employ them to drive us all towards more
sustainable development.
We can go even further. I firmly believe that the new technology age, if
shaped in a responsive and responsible way, could catalyse a new cultural
renaissance that will enable us to feel part of something much larger than
ourselves – a true global civilization. The fourth industrial revolution has
the potential to robotize humanity, and thus compromise our traditional
sources of meaning - work, community, family, identity. Or we can use the
fourth industrial revolution to lift humanity into a new collective and moral
consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. It is incumbent on us all
to make sure that the latter is what happens.
105