The consequences for economies around the world are straight forward. The winners wil be those whose job markets are flexible enough to adapt to a new technology and newly emergent professions, who have high-skilled laborers capable of understanding the new technology
more effectively so to adapt and maximize subsequent economic returns (and laborers whose skills themselves are flexible and thus translatable to extreme automation and connectivity), whose infrastructure is not only advanced but capable of changing the physical location of human economic activity (‘localized production, home working and the idea of the factory complex or urban central business districts’), and which emphasize intellectual property (development, protection, and capable of dealing with new legal challenges) will be winners. The losers will be those whose job markets are built around guilds with “arcane qualifications or other barriers to entry,” who have low-skilled laborers (or laborers whose skills themselves are inflexible), whose infrastructure has been designed for the status quo, and which disregard the need for or protection of intellectual property, will be losers.
And what about the skills that will be needed to compete?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution should value high-skilled groups of workers more than low-skill labor. High-skill labor is likely to be able to understand the new technology more effectively and to adapt and maximize subsequent economic returns. Perhaps more importantly, however, the skills that are required need to be flexible in themselves. An engineer, educated in a traditional system of rote learning, may be well equipped for the standards and economic structures of today. But they are likely to find it harder, at least in the short run, to adapt their skills to a world of extreme automation and connectivity that will shape future economic structures. The issue of flexibility in learning skills can work against an
economy that has a high education level. Being skilled in change, as well as being skilled in one’s profession, is crucial.4
This suggests that, while critical thinking skills obtained through a liberal arts education might serve an individual well when trying to ask the right question about any given circumstance, and cultural awareness may facilitate emotional intelligence, students need technical skills as well – whether those be a strong working familiarity with devices and/or communications platforms or a working knowledge of coding, accounting, finance, communications, public relations, and project management. Because such skills are presently acquired in elective courses, which means they can be selectively ignored, colleges and universities should seriously consider embedding the development and use of such skills in traditional courses and coursework.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Since UBS issued that report, artificial intelligence (AI) – particularly, generative artificial intelligence (AI), like ChatGT and Bard – has come to dominate the news cycle. UBS has already updated their findings, in a report titled “Is AI, the fourth industrial revolution, a threat or an opportunity?” – noting that “a 2017 Pew Research Center study, 72 percent of Americans are worried about robots replacing them at work.”4 As a result of their findings
The fourth industrial revolution is based on extreme automation and extreme connectivity which annihilates distance and time as obstacles to ever deeper, faster communication between and among humans and machines.
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