The Fourth Industrial Revolution

As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “The future enters into us…in order to transform itself in us long before it happens.”73

“And in an age of distraction, nothing is so luxurious as paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still.”

The big challenge for most societies will be how to absorb and accommodate the new modernity while still embracing the nourishing aspects of our traditional value systems.

Our relationship with our mobile technologies is a case in point. The fact that we are always connected may deprive us of one of our most important assets: the time to pause, reflect and engage in a substantive conversation neither aided by technology nor intermediated by

The survey report Deep Shift—Technology Tipping Points and Social Impact was published in September 2015.76 Reproduced below are 21 technology shifts presented in the study and two additional ones, including the tipping points for these technologies and the dates of their expected arrival to market.

social media.

We must not forget that the era we currently live in, the Anthropocene, or Human Age, marks the first time in the history of the world that human activities are the primary force in shaping all life-sustaining systems on earth.

As I have emphasized throughout this book, the eventual course that the fourth industrial revolution takes will ultimately be determined by our ability to shape it in a way that unleashes its full potential.

We can only meaningfully address these challenges if we mobilize the collective wisdom of our minds, hearts and souls. To do so, I believe we must adapt, shape and harness the potential of disruption by nurturing and applying four different types of intelligence: