Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A guide to building a better world

Description

Understand how you can influence the future technologies shaping the way we live and work. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing everything - from the way we relate to each other, to the work we do, the way our economies work, and what it means to be human. We cannot let the brave new world that technology is currently creating simply emerge. All of us need to help shape the future we want to live in. But what do we need to know and do to achieve this? In Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Klaus Schwab explores how people from all backgrounds and sectors can influence the way that technology transforms our world. Drawing on contributions by more than 200 of the world's leading technology, economic and sociological experts to present a practical guide for citizens, business leaders, social influencers and policy-makers this book outlines the most important dynamics of the technology revolution, highlights important stakeholders that are often overlooked in our discussion of the latest scientific breakthroughs, and explores 12 different technology areas central to the future of humanity. Emerging technologies are not predetermined forces out of our control, nor are they simple tools with known impacts and consequences. The exciting capabilities provided by artificial intelligence, distributed ledger systems and cryptocurrencies, advanced materials and biotechnologies are already transforming society. The actions we take today - and those we don't - will quickly become embedded in ever-more powerful technologies that surround us and will, very soon, become an integral part of us. By connecting the dots across a range of often-misunderstood technologies, and by exploring the practical steps that individuals, businesses and governments can take, Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution helps equip readers to shape a truly desirable future at a time of great uncertainty and change.

Professor Klaus Schwab is founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. In 1998, he created the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which seeks to identify, recognize and disseminate initiatives in social entrepreneurship that have the potential to be replicated on a global scale. An engineer and economist by training, Professor Klaus Schwab holds doctorates in Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Fribourg; in Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; and a Masters of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has received numerous international and national honours.

The world has fast entered a data and technology-driven era where new opportunities but also challenges are emerging. In this book, Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum contribute significantly to one of the most important issues of our time - how to move forward in the Fourth Industrial Revolution -- Jack Ma * Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group Holding, People's Republic of China * It's no secret that technologies are reshaping the world's economies and societies. To manage the risks and spread the benefits, we have to act now, and in the interest of stakeholders everywhere -- Andrew McAfee * Co-Founder, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA * Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution sheds light on what's at stake for society and how leaders can play a part in shaping the course of history. Klaus makes a powerful call in the book: "We have to shake things up before technological inertia determines our future for us." Act now. -- Zhu Min * Chairman, National Institute of Financial Research, People's Republic of China * The technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are extraordinary. Leadership has to be equally extraordinary to manage the complexities of systemic change -- Eric Schmidt * Technical Advisor, Alphabet, USA * This book is essential for gaining a perspective on some of the critical challenges that rapid technological change poses to us all: ensuring the wellbeing of societies, understanding the evolving role of governments, and rethinking how the global economy will work in the 21st century -- Roberto Azevedo * Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva * The World Economic Forum shows us that improving the state of the world will mean seriously thinking about, and empowering, all of those whose lives are transformed by technologies -- Peter Maurer * President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva * Prosperity with technology means defending the rights of women on the frontline of change, defending the dignity of work for all workers and improving working conditions around the world. A Fourth Industrial Revolution that can do that would benefit us all -- Sharan Burrow * General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Brussels * The Fourth Industrial Revolution is being felt profoundly around the world. Chapter by chapter, special insights from some of the best minds from the World Economic Forum's community show just where leadership focus is needed -- Luis Alberto Moreno * President, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC * The title says it all. Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution emphasizes the modern imperative to shape a development model that dramatically reduces our current unsustainable footprint on the planet, as a critical foundation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to succeed. Or there won't be a fifth -- Marco Lambertini * Director-General, WWF International, Switzerland * The challenge is clear: if we want to create technologies which benefit us all, and help us create more just and inclusive societies, we need to ensure that the values of human dignity and equality become a core design and use principle -- Shalil Shetty * Secretary-General, Amnesty International, United Kingdom *