14
1 Introduction: The Digital Society
1.13 On the Way to a Smarter Digital Society
In the long run, I am confident about our future, mainly because I believe in the
power of ideas in the digital age. However, we must remain alert to the possibility
that we could make serious mistakes along the way. The financial system may fail,
democracies may—intentionally or accidentally—turn into surveillance societies, or
we may end up fighting wars. Therefore, with this book, I am trying to explain the
opportunities and risks ahead of us.
Signs of change are everywhere. Information technologies are transforming the
global economy at a rapid pace. In essence, we are experiencing nothing less than
a “third economic revolution”,
23 leading to an “Economy 4.0”. Its effects will be at
least as profound as those of the first (agrarian to industrial) and second (industrial
to service) revolutions. The ubiquity of digital technologies—such as social media,
smart devices, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence—is giving rise to
a digital society. We can no longer afford to be passive bystanders of this seismic
societal transition. We must prepare for it. But we should not regard these changes
merely as a threat to social and global stability. In fact, we are faced with a once-ina-century opportunity!
For example, the digital revolution is not only changing the way we learn, behave,
make decisions and live. It is also altering the way we produce and consume, and
our conception of ownership. Information is a very interesting resource in that it is
the basis of culture and can be shared as often as we like. To get more of it, we do
not have to take it away from others. We don’t have to fight for it. This of course
will depend on how our economy is organized in the future. In particular, on how we
reward effort for the production of data, information, knowledge and creative digital
products. We can either perpetuate the outdated principles of the twentieth century or
open the door to a smarter twenty-first century society. Why don’t we do the latter?
Many people are now talking about “smart homes”, “smart factories”, “smart
grids”, and “smart cities”. It is logical that we will soon have a “smart economy” and
a “smart society”. Networked information systems will enable entirely new solutions
to the world’s problems. One thing is therefore clear: the world in the digital age will
be very different. But even if we can’t exactly predict what the future will hold, can we
at least get a glimpse of it? I believe we can, at least to some extent, and some trends
are already emerging. Clearly, the characteristics of the future world will result from
the technological, social and evolutionary forces shaping it. The technological drivers
include Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. The social drivers
include the increase of information volumes and networking. In addition, there are
evolutionary forces that will lead to new kinds of incentive systems and decisionmaking. I will attempt to evaluate the implications of these forces, and debate the
opportunities and risks they present.
These forces, in turn, are generated by the interactions occurring within our
“anthropogenic systems”, i.e. our man-made or human-influenced techno-socioeconomic-environmental systems. In order for interventions to be beneficial, we
23 See, for example, Rifkin [11].
1 Introduction: The Digital Society
1.13 On the Way to a Smarter Digital Society
In the long run, I am confident about our future, mainly because I believe in the
power of ideas in the digital age. However, we must remain alert to the possibility
that we could make serious mistakes along the way. The financial system may fail,
democracies may—intentionally or accidentally—turn into surveillance societies, or
we may end up fighting wars. Therefore, with this book, I am trying to explain the
opportunities and risks ahead of us.
Signs of change are everywhere. Information technologies are transforming the
global economy at a rapid pace. In essence, we are experiencing nothing less than
a “third economic revolution”,
23 leading to an “Economy 4.0”. Its effects will be at
least as profound as those of the first (agrarian to industrial) and second (industrial
to service) revolutions. The ubiquity of digital technologies—such as social media,
smart devices, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence—is giving rise to
a digital society. We can no longer afford to be passive bystanders of this seismic
societal transition. We must prepare for it. But we should not regard these changes
merely as a threat to social and global stability. In fact, we are faced with a once-ina-century opportunity!
For example, the digital revolution is not only changing the way we learn, behave,
make decisions and live. It is also altering the way we produce and consume, and
our conception of ownership. Information is a very interesting resource in that it is
the basis of culture and can be shared as often as we like. To get more of it, we do
not have to take it away from others. We don’t have to fight for it. This of course
will depend on how our economy is organized in the future. In particular, on how we
reward effort for the production of data, information, knowledge and creative digital
products. We can either perpetuate the outdated principles of the twentieth century or
open the door to a smarter twenty-first century society. Why don’t we do the latter?
Many people are now talking about “smart homes”, “smart factories”, “smart
grids”, and “smart cities”. It is logical that we will soon have a “smart economy” and
a “smart society”. Networked information systems will enable entirely new solutions
to the world’s problems. One thing is therefore clear: the world in the digital age will
be very different. But even if we can’t exactly predict what the future will hold, can we
at least get a glimpse of it? I believe we can, at least to some extent, and some trends
are already emerging. Clearly, the characteristics of the future world will result from
the technological, social and evolutionary forces shaping it. The technological drivers
include Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. The social drivers
include the increase of information volumes and networking. In addition, there are
evolutionary forces that will lead to new kinds of incentive systems and decisionmaking. I will attempt to evaluate the implications of these forces, and debate the
opportunities and risks they present.
These forces, in turn, are generated by the interactions occurring within our
“anthropogenic systems”, i.e. our man-made or human-influenced techno-socioeconomic-environmental systems. In order for interventions to be beneficial, we
23 See, for example, Rifkin [11].