Referenced article here.
I like this article by the co-founder of Wired magazine. He argues that we are 20 years into the third Industrial Revolution, except that it isn’t really of an Industrial nature as compared to the First (steam, railroads) and Second (electricity, sanitation) ones. The third Industrial Revolution started with the birth of the commercial Internet in the 1990s. The economic productivity of the Third Industrial Revolution cannot be measured in the same way as the First and Second, that is, in terms of GDP and labour saving practices. Instead, the Third Industrial Revolution, which is about the Internet of Everything, should be measured economically in terms of new activities and new kinds of jobs created, such as experimentation in science and art, something robots and automations cannot do but humans excel at. Moving into a networked world produces new ideas and innovations that cannot be perceived easily at first, until they seep into law and culture, which then translate to real contributions to the economy. The networked economy is like a huge complex biological organism, with evolutionary and incremental development, rather than a one-time disruptive improvement such as moving women to the workforce. Who knows what the implications are of this Third Industrial Revolution? We live in exciting times indeed.
lohjianhui 